BlueLinx Holdngs Inc. shrank its net loss to $14.7 million in its fiscal first quarter ended April 3 from a $60.7 million net loss in the year-earlier period, the company reported May 6. Revenues rose 6% to $431.1 million--the first such year-over-year increase in four years--while overall unit volume increased by 1.4% from 2009's fiscal first quarter.
"(O)ur results were hindered by unusually severe weather conditions throughout the country," BlueLinx president and CEO George Judd said in a news release. "However, since the later part of the first quarter, we have seen an increase in demand for our products as the housing market appears to have begun its recovery."
The Atlanta-based distributor's gross profit rose 18% to $52.3 million while gross margins reached 12.1%, up from 10.9% a year before. Totla operating expenses decreased 3.9% to $60.3 million. On operations alone, its loss shrank to $8 million from a year-earlier $18.4 million.
