Vicwest Inc. Reports Strong Fourth Quarter 2011 Growth, Positive 2012 Outlook

• Revenue increased 24.1% to $108.8 million from $87.7 million a year ago.
• Gross profit was $17.0 million (15.6% gross margin) compared to $15.9 million (18.2% gross margin) a year ago.
• EBITDA¹was $6.2 million, 14.6% above the prior year's EBITDA¹ of $5.4 million.
• EBT² was $2.8 million compared to a loss of $0.3 million a year ago.
• Net income was $1.8 million ($0.09 per share basic and diluted) compared to $2.3 million ($0.13 per share basic and diluted) a year ago.  Net income was negatively impacted by a year over year increase in income taxes due primarily to the conversion from an income trust to a corporation.

Fourth Quarter Divisional Results

• Vicwest Building Product's revenue was $75.1 million, 19.2% higher than a year ago primarily due to the contribution of All Weather Insulated Panels ("All Weather") and modest increases noted in both light commercial and ICI markets. EBITDA¹ was $2.0 million compared to $3.8 million in the prior year; this decrease is a reflection of a less favourable product sales mix and one-time costs related to the launch of the new SAP enterprise resource planning system.
• Westeel Storage Solution's revenue increased 36.4% to $33.7 million from $24.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2010 on higher liquid storage product shipments and sales of domestic agricultural products. EBITDA¹ more than doubled to $4.3 million compared to $1.7 million a year ago on higher sales and lower operating costs relative to sales.

"We achieved strong revenue growth throughout 2011 due to the strategic expansion of our product lines and geographic scope," said Colin Osborne, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The Company had very positive sales trend in both divisions and the organic growth at All Weather exceeded our expectations. From a margin perspective, in building products we have not yet achieved full recovery of input costs; however we expect to see margin expansion through 2012 as we continue to focus on cost control and begin to benefit from recovering construction activity."

Annual Consolidated Results

• Revenue increased 16.9% to a record $417.3 million from $357.0 million in 2010.
• Gross profit was $67.7 million (16.2% gross margin) compared to $62.1 million (17.4% gross margin) a year ago.
• EBITDA¹ excluding business development and restructuring expenses increased 23.0% to $28.3 million compared to $23.0 million (6.4% EBITDA¹ margin) a year ago.   On an unadjusted basis, EBITDA¹ increased 7.6% to $24.7 million (5.9% EBITDA¹ margin).
• Net income was $12.5 million ($0.67 per share basic, $0.53 per share diluted) or $11.4 million excluding the effect of the gain on the embedded derivative revaluation, restructuring and business development expenses compared to $12.4 million ($0.71 per share basic and diluted) a year ago.
• Vicwest Inc.