Milacron LLC generated sales of $1.18 billion in 2015, and two executives used the word “cautious” to describe 2016, saying that poor visibility clouds the outlook for the second half.
Milacron CEO Tom Goeke also said Milacron and the first customer of its Klear Can plastic food package will make an announcement shortly.
Milacron reported its 2015 sales declined by 2.6 percent from the year-before sales of $1.21 billion. But Milacron also provided numbers on a constant-currency basis — to exclude unfavorable effects of currency movements — and measured that way, sales increased 2.8 percent from the year before.
The strong dollar has hit financial-reporting numbers for many U.S. companies.
Milacron, based in Blue Ash, Ohio, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange June 25 after an initial public offering.
Milacron also lost $38.8 million in 2015, up from a loss of $14.9 million in 2014, according to its financial report. The company said adjusted net income in 2015 was $98.2 million, up 31.8 percent from an adjusted net of $74.5 million.
The largest U.S. manufacturer of plastics machinery released its fourth quarter and year-end numbers March 2.
“I think ‘cautious' is the word,” Goeke said in a conference call, answering a financial analyst's question. “There are a lot of projects in the pipeline, but until they close you don't have an order. So stay tuned.”
Bruce Chalmers, vice president of finance and chief financial officer, echoed that: “The difficulty that all of us have in the industry is just lack of visibility as to what the second half of the year looks like. So we're approaching the year cautiously, and really focused on making sure that we're taking costs out as quickly in the business.”
He said Milacron also is “staying attentive to growth opportunities” in different parts of the world and end markets.
“So it's cautiousness at this point, just due to lack of visibility, and the general economic environment that I think we're all looking at,” Chalmers said.
