During a conference call on Feb. 4, Lennox Chairman and CEO Todd Bluedorn announced plans for Lennox to sell Kysor Warren, its United States refrigerated display case manufacturing business. Kysor Warren products can be found in supermarkets, convenience stores, food service businesses and mass merchandising "big box" businesses.
In 2018, Lennox divested its refrigeration businesses in Australia, Asia and South America.
"Lennox International posted a record year for revenue, profitability, and cash generation in 2018 while working through the challenges from tornado damage at a large manufacturing facility and further focusing our business portfolio with refrigeration divestitures in Australia, Asia and South America," said Bluedorn. "We plan another divestiture in 2019 with the sale of the Kysor Warren business within our Refrigeration segment to focus on our businesses that have strong market positions and fit our growth profile.
Kysor Warren, based in Columbus, Ga., operates as a subsidiary of Heatcraft Refrigeration Products LLC. Kysor Warren was founded in 1882. Lennox acquired the business from Manitowoc in 2011.
“Lennox International posted a record year for revenue, profitability, and cash generation in 2018 while working through the challenges from tornado damage at a large manufacturing facility and further focusing our business portfolio with refrigeration divestitures in Australia, Asia and South America,” Bluedorn said.
Reported adjusted revenue for the full year, excluding the impact from divestitures, was $3.81 billion, up 4%. The tornado that struck a manufacturing facility in Marshalltown, IA, had a negative 3% impact on revenue growth for the full year. Foreign exchange was neutral to revenue.
Residential revenue had $69 million of tornado impact in the fourth quarter, a 14% hit to top-line growth. Segment profit had $40 million of negative tornado impact in the fourth quarter, partially offset by $27 million of insurance proceeds received for third-quarter lost profits. We continue to expect fourth-quarter 2018 and 2019 lost profits from business interruption to be fully offset by insurance proceeds in 2019.
Total segment profit increased 6% to a record $540 million, and total segment margin expanded 30 basis points to a record 14.2%. Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations rose 20% to a record $9.42 for the full year.