Miller Industries in Ooltewah boosts quarterly profits 35 percent

photo Employees put massive trucks together in the large wrecker assembly shop at the Ooltewah branch of Miller Industries Inc.

Miller Industries Inc. boosted both revenues and profits this summer as the economy improved for wrecker equipment sales and the Ooltewah manufacturer continued to improve productivity.

Miller said today it earned $3.5 million, or 31 cents per share, on sales of $118.4 million in the third quarter of 2014. Sales were up 12.6 percent over a year ago and profits were ahead by 35 percent over the same period a year ago.

For the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2014, net sales were $345 million, an increase of 16.6 percent from a year ago. The company reported net income of $9.2 million, or 82 cents per share, for the first nine months of 2014, compared to net income for the first nine months of 2013 of $6.9 million, or 61 cents per diluted share.

Miller also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 15 cents per share, payable Dec. 15, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 8.

"Our third quarter performance reflected the continued momentum and strength of our underlying business, coupled with improving economic conditions and ongoing positive sentiment among our customers," said Jeffrey I. Badgley, Co-CEO for Miller Industries. "Our continued focus on controlling costs and improving our operating efficiency helped generate strong results across the enterprise, including a year-over-year increase in sales, growth in our backlog, and improving profitability."

Badgley said he is encouraged by increasing order flow and overall level of quoting activity in the industry.

"Domestically, activity continues to trend higher, and during the third quarter, we increased our production and remained operationally flexible in order to stay ahead of demand and meet our customers' needs," he said. "Internationally, we continued to broaden our footprint, as we made further progress on our French military order as well as solidified incremental orders that we anticipate will benefit our top-line in the long term."

Looking ahead, Badgley said the "outlook is very positive, as we continue to bid on new contracts, grow our backlog, and further build on our innovation and product introduction successes."

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