Sherwin-Williams Revenues Near $5.4B Despite Big Drop In Consumer Sales

The Sherwin-Williams Company reported an overall increase in net sales of 16.9 percent to almost $5.4 billion for the second quarter of 2021, but the numbers show a 25 percent dip in the consumer sales segment of the business, which saw lower sales volume and higher raw material costs.

Net sales from Sherwin-Williams stores across U.S. and Canada that had been open for more than a year jumped 19.3 percent in the quarter ending June 30 from the same time one year ago, according to a company announcement Tuesday (July 27). Company officials will host a conference call today.

“We delivered solid performance in the second quarter driven by robust architectural paint demand in The Americas Group and strong demand across our industrial end markets, which more than offset the return to more normal DIY end market demand levels,” said Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer John G. Morikis in the company announcement.

In The Americas Group, sales in all of Sherwin-Williams’ markets except DIY were up double-digit percentages in the quarter, led by residential repaint.

“As expected, sales to our DIY customers were down double-digits, driven by difficult comparisons to the prior year as consumer demand returned to more normal levels,” said Morikis. The lower North America DIY demand trends also impacted the Consumer Brands Group in the quarter.

“Supply chain constraints in the quarter impacted our architectural businesses similarly in The Americas and Consumer Brands Groups. In Performance Coatings Group, all divisions delivered strong double-digit growth, led by industrial wood and general industrial,” he said.

Consolidated net sales increased from about $4.6 billion last year to almost $5.4 billion primarily due to higher product sales volume in The Americas Group (up 22.6 percent from $2.5 billion to $3.1 billion) and the Performance Coatings Group (up 41.3 percent from $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion), partially offset by lower product sales volume in the Consumer Brands Group (down 25.4 percent from $980.2 million to $731.5 million).

“While demand remains robust across nearly all of our end markets, industry raw material inflation is more significant and sustained than originally anticipated,” said Morikis. “We continue to have great confidence we will offset these higher costs with the incremental price increases we have announced, and we are prepared to implement additional increases should they become necessary.”