Compass Minerals Reports First-Quarter Snow Data, Segment Sales and COVID-19 Updates
Compass Minerals reported below-average winter weather activity in both its North America and U.K.-served markets. This resulted in lower than expected highway deicing salt sales volumes.
Eleven representative cities in the company’s primary North American highway deicing service area reported 85 snow events during the first quarter of 2020 compared to 122 snow events in the first quarter of 2019. While these snow event results represent a decline of 30% from first-quarter 2019 levels and winter weather was extremely mild in the U.K., the company’s highway deicing sales volumes declined only 11% compared to prior-year results.
“While we can’t influence the weather or fully control the impact of the current pandemic, the operational improvements we are now realizing and improved market conditions for our specialty plant nutrition products continue to drive growth for the company,” said Kevin S. Crutchfield, president and CEO. “The well-being of our employees remains our top priority and thanks to their ability to adjust to the challenges posed by this health crisis, our business has experienced limited impacts from COVID-19 thus far. Given the essential nature of our products, the resilience of our key markets and ample liquidity, we are well-positioned to weather this period of uncertainty.”
Despite these results and other business challenges related to the spread of and global response to COVID-19, the company expects to deliver strong first-quarter earnings growth across all three segments with first-quarter 2020 consolidated operating earnings increasing more than 25% from prior-year results.
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