Libbey reports quarterly loss, lower revenues

10/31/2017

Libbey Inc., the Toledo maker of tabletop glassware, lost $78.8 million in the third quarter after taking a charge of nearly $80 million following a revaluation of its Latin American operations.

Company officials said weaker-than-expected performance in Mexico combined with a highly competitive market and poor exchange rate between U.S. and Mexican currencies forced them to lower the book value of their operations and take the write-off.

“While we are disappointed in the need to write off this goodwill, we continue to view our Latin America operations as a strategic asset that can contribute to improved business performance going forward,” Chief Financial Officer James Burmeister said in a statement.

On a per-share basis, that translated to a loss of $3.57. In last year’s third quarter, Libbey earned $2.9 million, or 13 cents a share.

Libbey’s third quarter revenues slipped $9.5 million — or almost 5 percent — to $187 million. Libbey attributed $4 million of that decline to interruptions caused by a pair of major earthquakes in Mexico and several hurricanes that hit the United States in August and September. 

In a statement, Chief Executive Office Bill Foley said:

"Competitive pressures and challenging market conditions, as well as a handful of unusual weather-related events and natural disasters, hindered our performance during the quarter. However, the improvements we expected to drive performance in the second half, such as improved profitability in EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa} and the launch of our e-commerce capabilities, began to materialize in the third quarter, and we look for them to contribute to a stronger fourth quarter.”

Through the first nine months of the year, Libbey has lost $86.2 million on net sales of $557.8 million. Over the same period in 2016, Libbey reported a $12.3 million profit on sales of $587.6 million.

After the earnings report, Libbey’s shares sunk more than 25 percent on Tuesday, closing at $6.84. That’s Libbey’s lowest closing price in nearly eight years.

Contact Lauren Lindstrom at llindstrom@theblade.com, 419-724-6154, or on Twitter @lelindstrom.