Hubbell sees slight rise in earnings
Sheltonbased Hubbell saw a slight uptick in its earnings last quarter.
The company reported a net income of $130.7 million last quarter compared with $114.7 million during the same period last year, which Hubbell President and CEO Dave Nord attributed, in part, to selling off assets and reinvesting the cash in a more costeffective way.
Hubbell sold its Haefely high voltage test business in September to Pfiffner International. According to Nord, the divestment allowed the company to sign an agreement to acquire an asset protection solutions provider within Hubbell’s Power segment.
“We think these transactions add value for our shareholders,” Nord said during the Tuesday’s investors conference call. The company is selling what he called “a noncore business with lower revenue characteristics” and using the capital “to acquire a higher margin business.”
Hubbell also saw a 2 percent increase in net sales, reporting $1.2 billion compared with $1.17 billion from the same period in 2018.
Hubbell’s executives said they plan to continue cutting roughly 10 percent, or 1 million square feet, of its footprint of total manufacturing and warehouse space. Nord had said in previous conference calls that the company already has about 10 active projects planned that would consolidate 500,000 square feet of space during the remainder of 2019.
He still hasn’t identified where, however. Hubbell has 75 factories and distribution facilities worldwide and nearly 20,000 employees.
Hubbell announced in June that it would shut down its electrical components factory in Newtown and its Burndy plant in Bethel in coming months, eliminating 194 jobs.
The Newtown plant, which is the manufacturer’s largest in the state, employs 140 people; the Bethel facility employs 54.
Most of the work will move to a larger Hubbell facility in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico.
Most of the work at the Burndy plant, which Hubbell acquired in 2009, will move to Alabama.
“We continue to invest restructuring dollars into our footprint optimization initiative with more to come in the fourth quarter and into next year,” he said Tuesday.