Toro Sales Climb Again

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. – Toro continues making friends on Wall Street, as the company announced second-quarter earnings that climbed 2.3 percent from last year, boosting year-to-date sales up 1.1 percent over last year’s results. Toro attributed the growth primarily to sales from initial stocking of residential products as dealers take on inventory, while professionals sales slid 1.6 percent from last year’s levels as Toro and professional dealers and distributors focus on reducing their inventories.

Through the second quarter, professional sales accounted for nearly 62 percent of the company’s overall revenue, despite reported sales decreases for commercial mowers and Sitework Systems units. Irrigation sales, however, increased slightly in the quarter, thanks largely to lower inventory levels entering this year. 

Second-quarter earnings for Toro’s fiscal 2002 were $36.4 million or almost 8 percent.

Looking toward the rest of the year, Toro reported that it expects sales growth in the second half of the year for much of the professional segment. However, the company cautioned that it isn’t likely to make up the sales decreases it has already experienced for landscape contractor customers in the remaining portion of the year.

The author is Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at bwest@lawnandlandscape.com.