Elgin, Ill.-based parts cleaning, waste services and rerefining company Heritage doesnt break out net income for its oil business segment. The company as a whole posted a $6.9 million net loss for full year 2014, compared to a $4.6 million profit for 2013. The company reported a $9.6 million net loss for the fourth quarter, compared to a $2.7 million profit in the year-earlier quarter.

Founder, President and CEO Joe Chalhoub noted in the companys March 16 earnings news release that although Heritage gradually increased profitability in its oil business segment during the second and third quarters of 2014, the substantial decline in crude oil prices in the fourth quarter of the year created a challenging environment for us and the entire industry. While we have worked hard to mitigate the impact of falling oil product prices on the spread between the price of the oil products we sell and the cost of the used oil we collect, the requirement to write-down the value of our oil product inventory was a significant negative impact to our profitability for the fourth quarter and for the full year.

Chief Financial Officer Mark DeVita noted that Heritages oil business segment reduced the price that it pays to used oil generators by approximately 65 cents per gallon during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. Unfortunately, fourth quarter earnings were negatively impacted by inventory write-downs of $6.1 million, which represented 12.2 percent of fourth quarter segment revenues. Also, the market price for the type of base oil we sell declined by almost 30 percent from the end of the third quarter until the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, which negatively impacted our earnings.