R&B Attends Investor Conferences in New York & Chicago
25 June 1998
R&B Attends Investor Conferences in New York & Chicago
COLMAR, Pa., June 24 -- On June 19, 1998, R&B, Inc.
attended a conference hosted by The Red Chip Review in New York
at the Marriott Marquis. R&B was one of 20 companies, of the 300+ small-cap
companies that The Red Chip Review covers, making presentations to small-cap
investors in attendance at the conference. Today R&B will be attending a
conference hosted by William Blair & Company in Chicago at the Four Seasons
Hotel. The Blair conference is focused more on the institutional investor
with over 100 companies presenting to an expected 400 investors in attendance.
In its presentations R&B is focusing on its accomplishments to date.
Through better sourcing, packaging and marketing, and a tenacious focus on its
niche, R&B has risen to become the dominant supplier of "hard-to-find" parts
and fasteners for the automotive aftermarket. The Company designs and
develops everything from oil drain plugs to engine manifolds and carries over
30,000 SKU's marketed under 50 proprietary brand names. In a relatively flat
aftermarket, R&B has more than doubled its business in the past three years,
growing from $66 million in 1994 to $153 million in 1997. During this period
of growth, the founders have built a new management team including a new CFO
and VPs of Operations, Sales and Marketing. Under the direction of this new
team, R&B has achieved impressive results through a focused program of
leveraging fixed costs for improved profitability and better working capital
utilization.
R&B has identified five platforms upon which to build its future growth.
These include 1) hard-to-find parts and fasteners; 2) service line which will
result from a pending acquisition; 3) new car dealers and salvage yards
through its MPI subsidiary; 4) international; and 5) non-automotive.
Particularly interesting are the opportunities in international and non-
automotive. Two-thirds of the world's vehicles are not in the US and yet
R&B's export business is only 3% of revenues. The Company acquired Scan-Tech,
headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden in January, 1998. Scan-Tech concentrates
on Volvo and Saab parts around the world. R&B will focus initially on
supplementing Scan-Tech's Volvo and Saab parts, but eventually will help it to
expand parts for other makes and models appropriate to specific vehicle
populations on a country-by-country basis. In the non-automotive segment, R&B
seeks to leverage existing products into new markets and has so far
successfully done so with fasteners to Lowes Hardware and welding supplies to
Home Depot.
In discussing prospects for 1998, R&B will comment that its expectations
are that the second quarter would be relatively flat in revenues and earnings
against last year's comparable quarter. This flatness is resulting from the
timing of orders placed by R&B's customers, including several planned
roll-outs of new products in 1998 that were scheduled for the second quarter
and have been rescheduled by the customers for later in the year. In
addition, on June 1, 1998, R&B completed its transition to a new enterprise
wide computer system, which resulted in approximately five less shipping days
during the quarter. While the second quarter, consequently, is likely to fall
below analysts' estimates of approximately $0.32 per share, R&B remains
confident in the analysts' revenue and earnings estimates for the balance
of the year.
R&B, Inc. is a leading supplier of "hard-to-find" parts and fasteners for
the automotive aftermarket. R&B's parts are marketed under more than fifty
proprietary brand names, through its Motormite and Dorman divisions, as well
as under the private labels of automobile manufacturers, parts manufacturers,
and national warehouse distributors.
Forward looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe
harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Such forward looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward looking
statements which speak only as of the date hereof. Factors that cause actual
results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, those factors
discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K under "Business -
Investment Considerations."