Valvoline reported that its operating income increased 23% to $129 million for the quarter, improved from $105 million in the same quarter in 2020. The quarter ending March 31 is the second quarter of Covington, Kentucky-based Valvoline’s fiscal year.

The company posted $701 million in total sales for the quarter, up 21% from $578 million in the year-earlier period.

Operating income for the company’s North American operating segment declined 19% to $38 million, while its sales edged up 2% to $242 million in the quarter. North American lubricant sales volume for the quarter improved 7% to 22.3 million gallons. The company attributed the decline in segment profitability primarily to short-term price-cost lag, due to rising raw material cost impacts.

“Volume growth of 7% was balanced across both the retail and installer channels, with the retail channel continuing to benefit from solid promotional performance and effective marketing,” the company said in its earnings news release. “Demand in the installer channel continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19.”

Operating income for Valvoline’s quick lubes was up 58% at $63 million in the quarter, and quick lube sales were up 34% at $285 million. Lubricant sales through Valvoline’s quick lubes reached 8.1 million gallons for the quarter, up 14% from 7.1 million gallons.

The international segment’s operating income climbed 56% to $28 million, and its sales grew 36% to $174 million in the quarter. International lubricant sales volumes – excluding unconsolidated joint ventures – grew 28% to 17.6 million gallons for the quarter.

“The international segment had another exceptional quarter with robust sales and profitability growth, including all regions contributing double-digit volume growth,” the company said in its earnings news release. “The strong performance was led by the Asia-Pacific region, particularly China, which had a larger COVID-19 impact in the prior-year period compared to other markets.”

Heritage-Crystal Clean

Heritage-Crystal Clean’s oil business segment reported that revenue for the quarter ended March 27 increased 21% to $35.9 million, compared to $29.8 million in the year-earlier period. The segment includes used oil collection activities, rerefining activities and sales of recycled fuel oil.

A 20% increase in base oil revenue was the main driver of the increase, along with an increase in used oil collection revenue, compared to the prior year’s quarter, the company, based in Elgin, Illinois, said in its earnings news release. “We continued to execute well at our rerefinery during the first quarter, which enabled us to produce 12% more base oil volume compared to the prior year quarter,” HCC President and CEO Brian Recatto said. “This allowed us to take advantage of favorable base oil pricing conditions and produce record profitability in our oil business segment.”