Amisco 1Q sales dip 2.6%, earnings up 4.3%
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, April 12, 2004
LISLET, Quebec — Metal furniture maker Amisco Inds. said sales in its first quarter ended Feb. 28 came to C$10.5 million, a dip of 2.6% from C$10.7 million in the comparable period last year.
Net earnings, however, climbed 4.3% to C$434,000, or 12 Canadian cents per share, from last year's C$416,000, or 11 Canadian cents per share.
About 70% of Amisco's sales are to retailers in the United States.
"The fact that our sales held nearly steady is noteworthy, since we were not making the line of office furniture that accounted for a little more than 4% of sales in the first quarter of 2003," said President and CEO Réjean Poitras to shareholders attending the company's annual meeting last week.
He said management was pleased with first-quarter results and was optimistic about the rest of the year, primarily because housing starts in both Canada and the United States remain strong.
The company's gross profit margin rose slightly, from 27.1% in the first quarter of 2003 to 28.3% in the latest quarter.
Despite the slight drop in sales, gross profit came to C$3 million in the first quarter, compared with C$2.9 million last year, thanks to the uptick in gross margin. The only extraordinary expense in the latest quarter was a charge for redesigning and producing Amisco's new catalog.
The weighted average number of shares outstanding has dropped 4.8% since a share-redemption program was launched four years ago. At the end of the first quarter, Amisco had 3.8 million shares outstanding, down from the 3.7 million outstanding a year ago.
Amisco also announced that it will pay a special dividend of C$2.45 per common share on June 1 to shareholders of record on May 18. It will come from the company's excess liquidities.
| • Amisco(a) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Earnings per share are fully diluted, and all figures in parentheses are loses or declines. | |||
| Quarter ended 2/28 | 2004 | 2003 | Change |
| (a) In Canadian dollars. (b) Based on average shares outstanding of 3.7 million in the 2004 quarter and 3.8 million in the 2003 quarter. | |||
| Sales | C$10,469,000 | C$10,743,000 | (2.6%) |
| Operating income | 584,000 | 645,000 | (9.5%) |
| Net income | 434,000 | 416,000 | 4.3% |
| Earnings per share (b) | 0.12 | 0.11 | 9.1% |
