WALTHAM, Mass. — Mac-Gray Corp., a major provider of laundry facilities management services to multi-unit housing locations, reported third-quarter revenue from continuing operations of $78.2 million, compared with $78.4 million in the third quarter of 2009.Net income from continuing operations for the third quarter of 2010 was $826,000, compared with a net loss from continuing operations of $734,000 for the third quarter of 2009. For the third quarter of 2010, Mac-Gray’s earnings before interest expense, provision for income taxes, depreciation and amortization expense from continuing operations was $17.2 million, compared with $15.9 million in the year-earlier quarter.“We delivered excellent third-quarter results as a result of our ongoing field-operating initiatives, lower interest expense, a strong commercial equipment sales performance and the improving apartment occupancy rates in some markets,” says Stewart G. MacDonald, Mac-Gray’s chief executive officer. “In what is typically our seasonally weakest operating period, we increased both our gross and operating margins for the second consecutive quarter. We also generated a healthy cash flow from operations.”MacDonald says nationwide apartment occupancy rates improved in the third quarter to 92.8%, up from 92.2% in the second quarter. Despite continued high national unemployment, a recovery in the apartment sector that began at the end of 2009 appears to have taken hold, he adds.“The decline this quarter in overall vacancy rates in many of our markets is promising for our business, and for the first time this year, we achieved a small increase in our ‘same-location’ revenue. It is now possible that the worst of the apartment vacancy problem is behind us.”
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