NEWMARKET, Ontario—Buoyed by a successful completion of a Federal Emergency Management Agency contract for respirators, a larger House and Human Services contract for the same units and PPE contracts for military and health care markets, AirBoss of America Corp. enjoyed record earnings for the third quarter of 2020.
"AirBoss again achieved record results during the third quarter," said Chris Bitsakakis, president and chief operating officer of AirBoss of America. "The impressive performance of (AirBoss Defense Group) during the pandemic has resulted in a significantly improved financial position, and we took advantage of this in October to complete the acquisition of the (final 45 percent) minority interest in ADG that we did not already own."
Bitsakakis said ADG also helped offset COVID-related declines in other markets, including the Rubber Solutions segment that saw a decrease in net sales of about 11 percent compared to 2019 third quarter results, to $29.8 million.
The company reported that it experienced sustained recoveries in other areas during the third quarter, approaching levels of more than 85 percent of pre-COVID-19 volumes.
Overall, net sales for the quarter came in at $162.7 million, compared to $77.2 million for the same quarter in 2019—an increase of 111 percent. Over the current nine-month period, net sales for the company were $369.4 million, compared with $242.4 million through the first nine months of 2019.
Net income for the quarter was $21.2 million, up from $1.52 million a year earlier.
"With $43.1 million in cash and cash equivalents (and) $60 million in undrawn availability under its credit facilities AirBoss enters the remainder of 2020 in strong financial condition," stated the financial report, released Nov. 10.
Also assisting the bottom line for the company in the third quarter was a $35.6 million, two-year extension to the military Husky 2G vehicle contract between ADG and the U.S. Army (Army Contract Command Warren) for support equipment for the vehicle-mounted mine detection system.
Of all three company segments, ADG continued to lead the way for AirBoss in the third quarter with $108.4 million in net sales, a 545.6 percent increase over the third quarter of 2019.
In the Engineered Products segment, according to third quarter results, AirBoss reported that net sales came in at $37.8 million, an increase of 19.3 percent over the third quarter of 2019. The Rubber Solutions segment saw sales dip 10.8 percent to $29.8 million on the quarter.
Through the first three quarters of 2020, overall sales came in at $369.4 million, compared with $242.4 million in 2019, with net income at $36.3 million, as opposed to $7.77 million last year.
"It is unclear what impact COVID-19 will have on the economy and our customer base in the near term," Bitsakakis said. "However, we believe our diversification positions us well either for a hopeful return to a safe normalcy or to continue supplying frontline workers with PPE if the pandemic continues or grows worse."
