DENVER—Despite uneven global demand for power transmission and fluid power products, Gates Corp. finished 2023 on a strong note with a "meaningful margin increase."
Net sales for 2023 totaled $3.57 billion, a year-end mark that largely was flat (half-percent growth) against 2022 net sales of $3.55 billion, according to year-end and fourth quarter results released by the company.
"We enter 2024 focused on progressing our enterprise initiatives and enhancing our business performance," said Ivo Jurek, CEO of Gates, in a Feb. 8 call with investors. "Our cash balance and net leverage position is in its strongest position as a public company and we remain highly focused on further reducing our net leverage ratio and opportunistically utilizing our recently approved $100 million share repurchase authorization.
"For full year 2023, our team generated a meaningful margin increase and drove significant improvement in our free cash flow."