Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 13, 1993 TAG: 9302130125
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PULASKI FURNITURE EARNINGS RISE
Credit problems of retailers have been so widespread in the past couple of years that an anticipated decrease in the amount of uncollectable debt was the good news Friday at Pulaski Furniture Corp.'s annual meeting.After reminding the company's shareholders that 1991 bad debt losses had set an all-time high for the company - 24 cents per share - President Bernard C. Wampler noted that 1992 losses rose to 42 cents per share.
However, he said he expected the "credit situation will be much improved this year. It should get back to pre-1991 levels," Wampler said.
Sales and income for the company's first quarter of the 1993 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 24, also indicate improvement, he said.
Net income for the quarter was $723,703 or 25 cents a share, up 237 percent over $214,714 or 8 cents per share for the same quarter last year. Net sales rose less than 5 percent - to $29.6 million from $28.3 million, but the items sold included fewer of the promotional pieces that have lower profit margins, Wampler said.
In fiscal 1992, which ended Nov. 1, Pulaski had net income of $2.6 million, or 91 cents a share, up 44 percent from 1991. Wampler said most of last year's success could be attributed to the fourth quarter, when net income was $2 million, 496 percent higher than fourth quarter 1991.
In fiscal 1991, Pulaski's net income dropped to $1.8 million from $5.2 million in 1990, Pulaski's first earnings decline in a decade.
Despite the recent improvement, Wampler cautioned stockholders not to be too optimistic. Pulaski's backlog of orders is no greater now than a year ago, he said.
Wampler said the company is being "conservative" in its production to avoid building inventory. However, all plants are operating on 40-hour work weeks, except its Ridgeway plant, which makes clocks.
In addition to Ridgeway and Pulaski, the company has plants in Martinsville, Dublin and Christiansburg and in Mebane and Durham, N.C. The company's Craftique 18th century division is in North Carolina.
At the meeting, the stockholders elected three current Class III directors to serve until 1996. They were Wampler, Clifford A. Cutchins III, retired chairman of Sovran Financial Corp., a predecessor to NationsBank, and Harry H. Warner, a financial consultant.
The board also declared a dividend of 13 cents per common share payable on March 15 to investors who own stock on March 1.