Art's Way's consolidated sales for the second quarter came in at $7.3 million, up 27.4% from $5.7 million in the same quarter last year. Sales for the first 6 months of 2022 came in at $12.9 million vs. $11.1 million last year, a 16% increase. The manufacturer stated it had seen "increased revenue and demand in all three business segments for the 3 months ended May 31, 2022 and increases in revenue in the Agricultural Products and Tools segments for the 6 months ended May 31, 2022."
Second quarter sales in the company's Agricultural Products segment were $5,316,000 compared to $3,858,000 during the same period of fiscal 2021, an increase of $1,458,000, or 37.8%. Year-to-date agricultural product sales were $9,477,000 compared to $7,357,000 last year, an increase of $2,120,000, or 28.8%.
Art's Way report continuing historic backlog numbers through 2Q22 as commodity prices remain near or at all-time highs, reporting the following:
"Our sales are up on almost all of our product offerings for the six months ended May 31, 2022 including beet equipment, manure spreaders, grinder mixers and land maintenance equipment. We expect strong demand for our products to continue in the short term as commodity prices remain high with concerns of global food shortages and with supply chain pressure creating agricultural equipment availability issues.
"We have seen repeated disruptions in our supply chain so far in fiscal 2022. As a result of supply chain disruptions, our planning department has been placing purchase orders and bringing in inventory further in advance of production dates than we have historically. This, as well as price increases, have led to an inventory increase of approximately $1.7 million for the first six months of fiscal 2022."
Net income for the second quarter of 2022 was $175,000 vs. $64,000 in the second quarter of 2021, an increase of 173.4%. Net income for the first 6 months of the year was $231,000, down 8% from $251,000 in the first half of 2021.
Art's Way chalked up the increase in 2Q net income to success in its agricultural products segment. "Despite the success, we believe we can increase certain production areas by updating capital equipment," the earnings report stated. "We have taken the initial steps to drive our business towards increased automation and efficiency to maximize our manufacturing output and drive our costs down by securing funding from Alumni Capital and Iowa Economic Development's Manufacturing 4.0 program."
