Materials
Specialty Chemicals
$26.48B
53K
Key insights and themes extracted from this filing
Net sales were $4.575 billion, a 1.5% decrease compared to $4.644 billion in the prior year. This was primarily due to unfavorable foreign currency translation and divestitures of the non-North American portion of the traffic solutions business, indicating some challenges in maintaining revenue growth.
Income before income taxes was $611 million, up from $557 million in the prior year. This increase was attributed to improved manufacturing productivity, certain reductions in overhead, and lower depreciation, amortization, and net interest costs, partially offset by wage and benefits inflation.
Operating working capital as a percentage of sales increased from 15.2% to 17.4%. This indicates that the company is less efficient in managing its working capital.