Beacon Roofing today announced preliminary net sales of about $1.46 billion for the second quarter of 2020, and announced several measures in response to the global COVID-19 crisis. According to a news release, the preliminary forecast represents 2% growth in overall sales, and a daily sales increase of 0.5% over last year.

“We are pleased with preliminary second quarter sales that broadly met our internal expectations and continued the momentum from Q1, even as COVID-19 began to impact our daily sales,” said President and CEO Julian Francis. “We made progress against each of our strategic priorities: seeing positive organic growth; improving our operating efficiency; increasing use of our digital solution. I continue to believe our strategy will deliver improved operating results over time.”

Francis explained that so far in April, most markets experienced modest negative impacts with single-digit daily sales decreases compared to last year. It’s been tougher in states like California, New York and New Jersey, where strong construction restrictions are in place.

“As a result, overall April daily sales are down ~20% year-over-year,” he said bluntly in the release. “While we are taking significant near-term actions and are fully prepared to leverage the economic recovery, given the heightened uncertainty about the timing and extent of that recovery, we are withdrawing our fiscal 2020 full-year expectations.”

The release stated long-term company strategies remain in place, and are being accelerated due to the crisis. Immediate cost-cutting actions included a reduction in seasonal and temporary hiring; overtime cuts; reduced hourly schedules; furloughs; salary reductions and significantly restricted capital improvements.

“We have taken meaningful action to improve our cost structure and are prepared to take additional steps to appropriately manage the business through this uncertain period,” Francis said.

He added that it’s his believe that some of the companies pro-active steps will make the company stronger as it moves beyond the COVID-19 crisis.

“Beacon has historically delivered strong levels of operating cash flow through all types of business cycles, and we anticipate positive operating cash flow during the second half of fiscal year 2020,” he said. “By safeguarding our people, our business, and our finances, Beacon is well-prepared to weather the challenging weeks or months ahead.”