Amisco sales slide 13.3% in quarter

Company posts loss of C$149,868

Michael Knell -- Furniture Today, September 29, 2008

L'ISLET, Quebec - Still stung by the strong Canadian dollar and a weak U.S. economy metal furniture specialist Amisco Inds. reported a 13.3% sales decline in its fiscal third quarter and a larger loss.

Sales for the three months ended Aug. 30 came to C$6.3 million and the net loss was C$149,868 or 4 cents per share, compared with a loss of C$22,817 or 1 cent per share for the third quarter last year.

Amisco reported that sales to Canadian retailers were up slightly for the quarter at C$3 million but its U.S. volume plunged 23.3% to C$3.3 million.

Company officials said in a statement that Amisco's "January 2008 launch of new products only started to yield benefits as of the third quarter of the current fiscal year, whereas the related sales are normally reported in the second quarter."

However, on the positive side of the ledger, gross margins were up slightly in the quarter to 20%.

For the nine months ended Aug. 30, sales of C$18.1 million were down 19.7% from the comparable 2007 period. The company posted a net loss of C$131,244 or 3.3 cents per share for the year to date, compared with net earnings of C$407,252 or 10 cents per share for the first three quarters of the 2007 fiscal year.