Uni-Select Increases Profit after Strong First Quarter

May 1, 2014—Uni-Select Inc. grew organic sales by 1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014, helping the automotive aftermarket product distributor to a 15 percent dividend increase, the company announced on Wednesday.

Overall sales dropped slightly—2.1 percent year over year—due to a number of planned store closures and a weak Canadian dollar, the company said, but Uni-Select’s EBITDA margin increased 22 percent, reaching 5 percent overall.

The company’s organic growth and tighter expense control helped produce a 117 percent increase in cash flow leading to a 38 percent increase in earnings per share.