W.W. Grainger Inc.’s August daily sales rose 20 percent as it continued to benefit from the oil spill clean up in the Gulf of Mexico, but the industrial distributor said sales for the first week of September were slowing sequentially.
Grainger, which offers over 900,000 products and sells almost everything from abrasives to refrigerants to vacuum valves, expects benefits from foreign exchange and the oil spill clean up to slow through the remainder of the year.
Millions of gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf of Mexico since an April 20 blast on the Deepwater Horizon rig triggered a huge spill, soiling 160 kilometers of coastline.
Grainger, which offers products such as oil booms, degreasers and safety supplies, said the oil spill clean up contributed about 3 percentage points to August growth.
Excluding acquisitions and foreign exchange, daily sales for the month rose 14 percent.
Grainger’s shares, which have fallen about 1 percent from their life-high of $116.05 in mid-April, closed at $114.73 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
