Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 6, 1994 TAG: 9404060100
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"We made a lot of friends," Birnbach said at the company's annual meeting Tuesday in Roanoke.
Even a tough New York audience of securities analysts, who Birnbach had been warned might walk out during his pitch, stood and applauded afterward, he said.
He also said the company will not raise its furniture prices this spring, traditionally the time of year when manufacturers set new prices before the International Home Furnishings Market. The High Point, N.C., market is where furniture retailers come to do their shopping.
This is the third year Rowe has kept prices stable. In the same period, the company cut its selling and administration expenses as a percent of sales by more than 2 percent and increased net earnings from a loss of $474,000 in 1991 to a gain of $5.1 million in 1993.
Rowe, which has its headquarters in Salem, makes upholstered furniture that retails in the middle- to upper middle-price range, which means sofas sell for $599 to $899. The company employs 1,240 people at plants at Poplar Bluff and Morehouse, Mo., in addition to Salem.
More than 95 percent of the 9 million-plus shares of company stock were voted Tuesday, the highest participation ever, Birnbach said.
Three directors were re-elected to serve through 1997:
Harvey Ptashek, senior vice president of the company; Gerald Woodlief, who was a senior vice president when he retired in 1992; and Patrick Dolan, president of a labor/management firm that initiated a quality management program at Rowe.
Ptashek, as an employee, is compensated $500 per meeting as a director. Woodlief received $11,000 in compensation in 1993, and Dolan got $10,500.
Birnbach, who has been with the company 37 years but is of retirement age, has a new eight-year contract, according to a report to stockholders. In December, the company revised and extended his contract and agreed on a plan to pay $2.6 million due from his Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan. He got $1.4 million late last year, with four equal annual installments of $200,000 due by Dec. 15 over the next four years.
Birnbach's new annual base salary will be $725,000.
by CNB