W.W. Grainger, Inc. - Pre Recorded Sales/ Trading Statement Call

W.W. Grainger, Inc. (GWW)

September 13, 2012 8:00 am ET

Executives

William D. Chapman - Director of Investor Relations

Presentation

William D. Chapman

Hi. This is Bill Chapman, Senior Director, Investor Relations for Grainger. Thank you for accessing this recorded message with information regarding Grainger's August 2012 sales results.

I'll begin by reminding you that certain statements and projections of future results made in this webcast constitute forward-looking information. This information is based on current expectations of market conditions and competitive and regulatory environments and involves risk and uncertainty. Please see our 2011 Form 10-K for a discussion of factors as they relate to forward-looking statements.

Let's now take a look at our sales results for August 2012, which had 23 selling days, the same as August 2011. Total company sales increased 10% versus August 2011. These results included a 4 percentage point contribution from acquisitions and a 1 percentage point decline from foreign exchange. Organic sales increased 7%, including 4 percentage points from volume and 4 percentage points from price. In addition, lower sales of hurricane-related products in August of 2012 versus August of 2011 represented a 1 percentage point decline for the month.

Now let's turn our attention to sales results by segment. As a reminder, monthly sales history by reporting segment for the prior 2 years is available on the Investor Relations website, along with a summary of selling days by month and by business. Please note that although some of our businesses have a different number of selling days due to local holidays, we use the number of selling days in the United States as the basis for our calculation of daily sales.