Sales for Toro's residential and professional outdoor power equipment business took a sharp drop in late spring and early summer, leading to a rare quarterly loss for the Bloomington-based company.
Factors leading to the "underperformance" were varied, said Chief Executive Officer Richard Olson, and included the exceptionally dry June and July, economic uncertainty, higher interest rates and the fact that so many people updated their home equipment during the pandemic.
The company, though, also announced one solution to the issue — a new partnership with Lowe's stores. Next spring, the major home improvement chain will start selling Toro's zero-turn riding mowers, walk mowers, portable power equipment and snow blowers.
"Lowe's leadership position in the zero-turn mower category and strong footprint in key customer markets complements our existing channel strategy," Olson said in a news release.
The drop in residential and professional lawn care equipment sales during Toro's third quarter were offset by stronger performance by the company's other businesses, including underground and specialty construction equipment and products that golf courses and large grounds maintenance customers use.
For the quarter ended Aug. 4, the company recorded a net loss of $15 million, or 14 cents a share, compared to a profit of $125.2 million in the same quarter last year.
Adjusted earnings, which excluded a $151.3 million non-cash impairment charge related to the January 2022 acquisition of the Intimidator Group, were $99.4 million, or 95 cents a share, which were down 20% and missed Wall Street expectations of $1.24 a share.
Sales for quarter were down 7% to $1.1 billion.