Material supplier A. Schulman Inc. reported net sales of US$604 million for its fourth quarter of 2016, down from US$674 in the same prior year quarter – a decline of 8.3%.
Akron, Ohio-based Schulman’s 2016 fiscal year ended Aug. 31.
The company’s net sales for the U.S. and Canada were US$158 million, down 18.6%. “This volume-driven weakness was broad-based and impacted a majority of [our] business units,” Schulman said in a statement.
Europe, Middle East and Africa net sales were US$299 million, Schulman said, down 6.7% excluding unfavorable foreign currency translation of $5.6 million.
In Latin America, meanwhile, net sales for the quarter were $44 million. “Excluding unfavorable foreign currency translation of $5.9 million, net sales rose 12.2%,” the company said. “This was the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth.”
And in Asia Pacific, Schulman reported net sales of US$49 million, up 3.2% excluding a slight foreign currency headwind.
In total, Schulman posted a loss of more than US$350 million for its 2016 fiscal year, due to what the company described as problems relating to its purchase of Citadel Plastics in 2015.
“As previously reported, [we] identified quality reporting issues affecting certain product lines at two former Citadel manufacturing facilities that were once part of Lucent Polymers, which was acquired as part of the Citadel acquisition,” said Joseph Gingo, Schulman’s chairman, president, and CEO. “The Lucent matter obviously had a big impact on us in fiscal 2016; however, we do not intend to speak to this issue going forward unless something significant changes. We believe that the sellers are responsible to compensate us for the damages that the company has experienced or may incur. As previously stated, we have filed a lawsuit and are pursuing it aggressively.”
