Tennant still being hit by COVID-19 effects

Tennant Chief Executive Chris Killingstad on Thursday called out his employees' great work through the pandemic, which caused a tough financial year for the Eden Prairie-based company.

Killingstad retires at the end of the week after 16 years as CEO. Chief Operating Officer Dave Huml takes over on Monday.

Killingstad's last month was a busy one.

The company announced early in the month it had completed the sale of its small coatings business to Sherwin-Williams, which bought Minneapolis-based Valspar in 2017.

About 70 employees of the unit with $22 million in annual revenue will shift to Sherwin-Williams as part of the deal.

Earlier this week, Tennant also announced the debut of a new robotic floor scrubber, the third in the company's line of autonomous robots. The T16AMR model is aimed at large logistics and manufacturing facilities.

And on Thursday, the company announced that its annual revenue fell 12% to $1 billion, a reflection of the impact COVID-19 has had on industrial manufacturing companies and the global economy. Tennant earned $33.7 million for the year.

Sales in the fourth quarter were $273 million, down 7.4% from the same period a year ago. Earnings were $2.5 million, down 77%.

When adjusted for one-time costs and other charges, earnings per share were down 44% to 48 cents, beating analysts' expectations.

Shares of Tennant were trading at $78.58, down 60 cents. Shares for the past 52 weeks have ranged between $46.64 and 80.61 per share.

Killingstad said the company expects annual revenue this year to be between $1.05 billion and $1.08 billion, up 5 to 8% but still below Tennant's pre-pandemic revenue of $1.14 billion in 2019.

Bloomington-based Donaldson Corp. also reported results on Thursday, with stronger than expected sales in the second quarter, although they were uneven by division.

The company's larger engine products segment, led by its off-road business, fared best in the quarter with sales of $462.4 million, up 6.2%. Carpenter said the strong off-road engine business as a signal of a broader-based economic recovery.