Middleby 2Q sales up on strong commercial demand

ELGIN -Strong sales in its commercial equipment group helped boost The Middleby Corp.'s second quarter 2016 earnings by more than 25 percent.

The global manufacturer of equipment for the commercial food service, food processing and residential kitchen industries reported net sales of $580.5 million for the quarter, compared to $436,3 million for the same period in 2015. Earnings for the quarter were $72.9 million, or $1.28 per share, up from $54.3 million or 95 cents per share last year.

"Domestically we have strong demand from our restaurant chain customers that continue to adopt our innovative equipment solutions; however the first half of 2016 was comparatively challenging due to several large chain rollouts that occurred in the first half of 2015," said Middleby Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Selim A. Bassoul. "We also realized strong sales growth in the second quarter at the Food Processing Equipment Group given the large backlog we carried into 2016, which translated into second quarter sales.

Bassoul said incoming order rates continued strong on continued demand for of products "as customers remain focused on increasing production capacities and improving efficiencies in their operations.

"We continue to focus on our profit improvement initiatives at the recent acquisition of AGA Rangemaster Group and its related portfolio of premium residential brands," Bassoul said. "We are also very excited to have recently announced the acquisition of Follett, a leader in ice machines and dispensing equipment."