Alpha Pro Tech reports Q2 EPS 15c vs. 10c last year

Reports Q2 revenue $16.3M vs. $16.1M last year. Lloyd Hoffman, President and CEO of Alpha Pro Tech, commented, “In our Building Supply segment, the housing market continues to show weakness, with housing starts down 7.4% in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the prior year period. Sales of our core building products, which include housewrap and synthetic roof underlayment, were down due to this decrease in housing starts. Our housewrap and accessories sales were down 9.0% in the second quarter compared to the prior year period, which were negatively affected by our premium housewrap line which was down 15.3% in the second quarter of 2024, because of a sharp decline in the multi-family building sector. The synthetic roof underlayment market has also been affected by lower housing starts, uncertain economic conditions, more offshore competition and a push in the market to reduce product selling prices. Despite these pressures, our synthetic roof underlayment sales performed reasonably well, with our economy underlayment, which makes up approximately 90% of our total underlayment sales, down only 0.5% in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the prior year period. We launched our new line of self-adhered roofing products in late 2023, and we expect continued revenue growth from this new product line. Self-adhered roof underlayment has proven to be a good addition to our roof category, and we expect these products will lead to additional conversions of our full line of mechanically fastened products. Other woven material sales increased by 12.3% in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the same period of 2023, due to increased sales to our major customer. The Company is pursuing new opportunities for other woven material sales that may improve sales, but management does not expect other woven material sales to be a growth driver in 2024. Management expects the remainder of 2024 to be challenging from a sales standpoint, as single family and multi-family housing starts are both projected to finish lower than 2023. We expect growth in the building supply segment when uncertainty in the housing market abates.”