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Huttig Building Products, Inc. Provides Business Update on COVID-19 Response & More

General News

Huttig Building Products, Inc. (“Huttig” or the “Company”), a leading domestic distributor of millwork, building materials and wood products, reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020, and provided a business update on its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our first quarter operating results were significantly better across every key financial metric as compared to the prior year quarter. On a stand-alone basis, the first quarter of 2020 marked the first full quarter that our results began to reflect the positive impact we planned and anticipated since embarking on our accelerated growth strategy,” said Jon Vrabely, Huttig’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Unfortunately, as our results were just beginning to reflect the impact of our efforts and strategy, our world, like that of virtually every other company on the planet, changed. The unprecedented magnitude and unpredictability of the Coronavirus pandemic forced us to shift resources away from the continued execution of our growth strategy and towards the development and implementation of our COVID-19 readiness and response plan. While we believe we were ahead of the curve in developing and executing the earliest versions of our response plan, and have continued to make meaningful progress, we anticipate the impact from this pandemic will be significant in the second quarter and thereafter as we continue working hard to mitigate its effect on our business.”

Impact and Company Response to COVID-19

In March 2020, the World Health Organization recognized the novel strain of coronavirus, COVID-19, as a pandemic. The United States, various other countries and state and local jurisdictions have imposed, among other things, travel and business operation restrictions intended to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus and have advised or required individuals to adhere to social distancing or limit or forego their time outside of their home. This pandemic and the governmental response have resulted in significant and widespread economic disruptions to, and uncertainty in, the global and U.S. economies, including in the regions in which we operate. In many jurisdictions, we and our customers were deemed “essential businesses” and continued to operate, reducing the impact of these restrictions on our operations and results for the three months ended March 31, 2020. However, we cannot reliably predict the future impact of the pandemic and the governmental response to the pandemic on our operations and future results.

Currently, all of our branches remain open and capable of meeting customer needs. We have taken protective measures to guard the health and well-being of our employees and customers, including the implementation of social distancing guidelines and remote work options where possible. We have observed certain of our customers reducing purchases and operations due to the impact of COVID-19 and governmental restrictions. Accordingly, we anticipate a decline in our sales and have taken proactive measures to protect our operating liquidity including communicating with vendors and customers, seeking modification of payment and other terms of rental and procurement agreements and monitoring our accounts receivable. We have also reduced inventory levels to meet an anticipated decrease in demand and have implemented cost containment measures, including lay-offs, wage reductions, suspension of matching contributions to our qualified defined contribution plan, and eliminated non-essential spend. We have also delayed or cancelled certain planned capital expenditures. We have utilized our diverse overseas network to source alternative suppliers of our proprietary products, while simultaneously rationalizing our purchase volume to better align with our current sales projections. We have also been proactively communicating with our senior credit lenders regarding potential modification of terms under our credit facility. While we intend for these actions to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on our operations, we cannot provide any assurance that these actions will be successful.

Although we are reviewing and intend to seek any available benefits under the CARES Act, we cannot predict the manner in which such benefits will be allocated or administered and we cannot assure you that we will be able to access such benefits in a timely manner or at all. Certain of the benefits we seek to access under the CARES Act have not previously been administered on the present scale or at all. Government or third party program administrators may be unable to cope with the volume of applications in the near term and any benefits we receive may not be as extensive as we currently estimate, may impose additional conditions and restrictions on our operations or may otherwise provide less relief than we contemplate. Accessing these benefits and our response to the COVID-19 pandemic have required our management team to devote extensive resources and are likely to continue to do so in the near future, which negatively affects our ability to implement our business plan and respond to opportunities.

For the full release, including first quarter results, click here.

About Huttig

Huttig, currently in its 136th year of business, is one of the largest domestic distributors of millwork, building materials and wood products used principally in new residential construction and in-home improvement, remodeling and repair work. Huttig distributes its products through 27 distribution centers serving 41 states. Huttig’s wholesale distribution centers sell principally to building materials dealers, national buying groups, home centers and industrial users, including makers of manufactured homes.

Source: Huttig Building Products, Inc.