RINO wants to bounce back after selloff... bullish stuff coming out of dow jones:
Blue Rhino Chairman Billy Prim said the company's newest product, an appliance called SkeeterVac that uses propane to attract and kill mosquitoes, has been rolled out to all of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s (WMT) Sam's Club warehouse stores. "That's going well," Prim said. "Consumer reception has been very, very
good, and returns have been minimal."
Prim said he expects sales at Internet sites for Sam's Club, Wal-Mart and Target Corp. (TGT) will generate most of the SkeeterVac sales predicted for this year. Sales of the product are on track to be $5 million to $10 million
this fiscal year, as expected, he said. The product generated about $3 million in sales during April and contributed to a 2% increase in the number of cylinders Blue Rhino sold, rather than simply exchanged, during the quarter.
Blue Rhino expects to introduce three or four new models of SkeeterVac next year.
Blue Rhino's revenues for cylinder exchange have benefitted from recent changes in federal safety laws that require propane tanks to have devices that prevent overfilling.
About 30 states have adopted the regulations, and Prim said Blue Rhino should continue to benefit as more states adopt the requirement. Most newer gas grills have the proper tanks, but owners of older propane tanks in many cases must
either buy new tanks or begin using a cylinder-exchange service. For an extra fee, people buying a tank of propane at one of Blue Rhino's retail customers can upgrade to one of the newer tanks. Cylinder-exchange services such as Blue Rhino's have only about 30% of the
total market for propane-tank refills, Prim said. That share should increase as people who try cylinder exchange stick with it, Prim said.
The company's recently acquired distributors also remain on track to contribute $2 million to $3 million to earnings before interest, taxes,
depreciation and amortization this fiscal year, he said. "Everything has gone according to plan," Prim said. |
