Acquisitions Drive Ecolab’s Third Quarter

“We delivered very good results in a challenging environment. Most importantly, we have set ourselves up to deliver a strong 2011 and are continuing to build momentum leading into 2012,” said Douglas M. Baker, Jr., Ecolab’s Chairman, president and CEO, upon release of the I& company’s third quarter results.

According to the company quarterly sales for Ecolab’s U.S. Cleaning & Sanitizing operations rose 6% to $763 million. Adjusted for acquisitions, sales increased 3%. Food & Beverage and Healthcare led the growth, while good underlying Institutional and Kay growth in the quarter was somewhat offset by prior year new product and program pipeline filling and large new customer rollouts. Ecolab’s U.S. Cleaning & Sanitizing operating income increased 6% to $158 million. Adjusted for acquisitions, U.S. Cleaning & Sanitizing operating income was flat, reflecting significantly higher delivered product costs.

U.S. Other Services sales increased 2% to $120 million in the third quarter. Operating income increased 6% to $21 million as GCS became profitable.

Sales for Ecolab’s International operations, when measured at fixed currency rates, grew 6% to $797 million in the third quarter. Adjusted for acquisitions and divestitures, fixed currency sales increased 4%. Fixed currency operating income increased 9% to $88 million in the third quarter. Adjusted for acquisitions and divestitures, International fixed currency operating income increased 8% as strong regional growth and significant benefits from our European efficiency programs offset significantly higher delivered product costs. When measured at public currency rates, International sales increased 18% and operating income rose 23%, the company said.

“Our sales growth remained on-track and outperformed our markets. We had excellent new business results and our strong portfolio of new products continues to gain traction. Additionally, all of our recent acquisitions continue to outperform our expectations. These results, combined with our success in realizing leverage from our cost efficiency programs and our European restructure program in particular, allowed us to overcome significantly higher than anticipated raw material costs,” Baker added.