MFRI REPORTS RECORD SALES OF $239 MILLION FOR YEAR ENDED 1/31/08, UP 12% COMPARED TO PRIOR YEAR.
May 5, 2008

MFRI REPORTS RECORD SALES OF $239 MILLION FOR YEAR ENDED 1/31/08, UP 12% COMPARED TO PRIOR YEAR. FOURTH QUARTER LOSS CREATED SMALL FULL YEAR LOSS. 2008 BEGINS WITH RECORD BACKLOG OF $143 MILLION, UP 46% FROM THE PRIOR-YEAR’S LEVEL.

NILES, IL, April 30, 2008 -- MFRI, Inc., is a multi-line company with interests in: pre-insulated specialty piping systems for oil and gas gathering, district heating and cooling and other specialty applications; custom-designed industrial filtration products to remove particulates from dry gas streams; thermal transfer equipment to remove heat from molding, printing and other industrial processes and installation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (“HVAC”) for large buildings, with a focus on energy efficient design.

For the year ended January 31, 2008 (“2007”), net sales were $239,487,000, up 12.2% from $213,471,000 in the prior year. Net loss for the year ended January 31, 2008 was $298,000, or $0.04 per share basic and diluted, versus net income of $4,593,000 or $0.86 per share basic and $0.82 diluted for the prior year. Gross margin for 2007 declined to 17.2% from 20.8% in 2006. Because of factors outlined below and other occurrences, 2007 gross profit of $41,249,000 was 7.1% lower than 2006 gross profit of $44,405,000.

Net sales in 2007 for the Piping Systems business increased by 26.9%, the Filtration Products business increased by 12.5%, while the Industrial Process Cooling Equipment business decreased by 11.7%. The HVAC business, included in corporate and other, was a start-up operation in 2007.

 READ MORE