Apogee Enterprises Inc., which generates most of its business from making architectural glass, has named a manufacturing veteran with building industry experience as its next CEO.
Apogee names Honeywell vet as CEO
Joseph Puishys takes over from Russ Huffer as president and chief executive officer.
August 9, 2011 at 3:56AM
Joseph Puishys, 53, will join the Bloomington-based company from Honeywell International Inc., where he has worked for the last 32 years. Puishys, who also will serve as president, succeeds Russ Huffer, who announced his retirement in January.
Apogee was not making Puishys available for interviews Monday. Brent Thielman, an analyst at D.A. Davidson & Co., said Puishys appears to be a good fit for Apogee, which has struggled in recent years because of the severe downturn in commercial construction.
"He brings plenty of building-industry experience, which is Apogee's bread and butter," Thielman said.
Since 2008 Puishys has been president of Honeywell's Environmental and Combustion Controls segment, a $3 billion business whose products include heating, cooling and lighting control systems for the building industry. Before that he headed the business that installs the systems, Honeywell Building Solutions.
Apogee's sales last year totaled $696.7 million, down about 25 percent, due mostly to sharply lower sales of glass used in large building projects. But more recently there have been signs that the depressed commercial construction market may finally be turning around for the company.
In June Apogee reported a loss of $2.2 million, or 8 cents a share, for its first quarter ended May 28, less than the loss of $3.5 million, or 13 cents a share, reported for a year earlier and better than the 11-cent-per-share loss forecast by analysts. Revenue in the quarter rose 7 percent to $153.3 million.
The company continued to post losses in its architectural glass segment because of lower-margin bids submitted on projects during the bottom of the commercial construction cycle. But it said at the time that business in the second half of its fiscal year, which ends in February, will begin to reflect price increases and that it expects to be slightly profitable for the year on a revenue increase of more than 10 percent.
Thielman said Apogee's biggest opportunities are in the continuing recovery in commercial construction and international expansion. The first-quarter increase in revenue was helped in part by a newly acquired Brazilian business, Nazare Paulista.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday, Apogee said Puishys' annual cash compensation would total $1.1 million, including a signing bonus of $500,000. He is scheduled to start his new job Aug. 22.
On a day when major market indexes fell 5 percent to 7 percent, Apogee shares closed at $9.45, down 9.4 percent.
Staff writer Patrick Kennedy contributed to this story. Susan Feyder • 612-673-1723
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