BMC Stock Holdings' net loss hit $6.8 million in the first quarter from a $3.6 million net loss in the year-earlier period as the company tallied nearly $15 million in costs related to acquisitions of three ProSales 100-size companies, BMC reported today.

Net sales soared 148.4% above year-earlier levels to hit $727.4 million, again thanks in part to BMC's absorption of Stock Building Supply, VNS Corp., and Robert Bowden Inc. in the past 12 months. Keep Stock's year-earlier sales but remove VNS and Robert Bowden's numbers and you get $590.4 million worth of revenue, BMC said; that's 23.2% more than the comparable figure a year before.

Gross profit more than doubled, to $166.62 million from $66.7 million. Gross margin slipped to 30.1% from 31.2%. Sales of construction services accounted for 23.9% of total sales.

On an operating basis, BMC slid to a $3.9 million loss from a $392,000 operating profit one year earlier.

Atlanta-based BMC prefers to measure itself through adjusted EBITDA, which it defines as earnings plus interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, impairment of assets, merger and integration costs, inventory step-up charges, and non-cash stock compensation expense. This greatly affects the bottom line, because BMC says it incurred $2.8 million in merger and integration costs during the quarter plus $11.9 million in integration-related impairment charges, and $5.2 million in amortization expenses. In addition, its depreciation expenses shot up to $8.8 million from $3.4 million.

Once factors like that are accounted for, BMC says, its adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $33.7 million from $15.6 million in the January-to-March 2015 period.

BMC President and CEO Peter Alexander liked the results, saying in the earnings announcement: “Calendar year 2016 is off to a great start, as outsized growth rates in our structural components and millwork, doors and windows product groups, along with favorable weather conditions, helped drive a 23.2% increase in net sales, including 13.5% organic volume improvement per sales day, compared to adjusted net sales in the first quarter of 2015. More importantly, we successfully leveraged our strong sales growth profitably, as adjusted EBITDA margin improved 200 basis points to 4.6%, compared to the first quarter of 2015.”

BMC's diversity shows through in its sales broken down into four product categories, the biggest of which--millwork, doors, and windows--represents only 30% of total sales. Sales of lumber and sheet goods provided another 28.8% of the $272.4 million in total sales, "other building products and services" generated 26%, and sales of structure components figured in the remaining 15.2%.

Since closing its merger with Stock last Dec. 1, BMC said it has "implemented cost synergy initiatives totaling $17 million in future annual run rate savings, and remains on track to achieve annual run rate synergies of $40 to $50 million by the end of 2017."

The balance sheet as of March 31 shows $1.39 billion worth of assets, including $254.6 million in goodwill. The liabilities side shows $399.1 million worth of long-term debt.