Snap-on caps robust year

Snap-on Inc. reported fourth quarter net earnings of $74.3 million, or $1.27 per share, up from $57.9 million, or 99 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.
The Kenosha tool manufacturer’s quarterly sales grew to $736.6 million from $696.9 million a year earlier.
The company’s full year 2011 sales of $2.85 billion increased 9.0 percent from prior year levels. Full year 2011 net earnings were $276.3 million, or $4.71 per diluted share.
"Our fourth quarter results extend our ongoing trend of year-over-year increases in sales and earnings," said Nick Pinchuk, Snap-on chairman and chief executive officer. "We believe they once again offer clear testimony to the continued advancements we’re making along our defined runways for coherent growth, which are those strategic areas of importance we have identified as being decisive to our future: enhancing the franchise network, expanding in the vehicle repair garage, extending into critical industries, and building in emerging markets. We further believe our fourth quarter and full year 2011 performance underscores our commitment to the Snap-on Value Creation Processes, which has enabled us to further navigate our runways for improvement in the crucial areas of safety, quality, customer connection, innovation and rapid continuous improvement (RCI) and has fueled our ongoing trend of increasing profitability. Finally, our encouraging results for both the fourth quarter and full year of 2011 reflect significant effort and achievement across our entire company; I thank all our franchisees and associates worldwide for their dedication to Snap-on and for their ongoing contributions and commitment to our team."