Stanley Furniture 1Q Sales to Remain Flat

April 9, 2015  by in Financial Reports, Industry   

The company said results were impacted by the West Coast port slowdown and tough winter weather.

Stanley sales remained flat compared with the same quarter last year. Order rates fell as the quarter progressed mostly plagued by bad weather in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states.

"After building momentum in the fourth quarter of last year and the first month of 2015, our business felt the effect of what was a very tough winter on retail throughout numerous industries," said Glenn Prillaman, president and CEO.

The overseas port congestion caused by the West Coast port strike increased the company’s costs and will contribute to an operating loss for the quarter.

"As we commented mid-quarter when asked about the port strike, we had not yet experienced significant logistic issues as most of our shipments move through the east coast,” Prillaman said. “However, the ripple effect of the issues on the west coast created overseas port congestion. We have since been incurring additional expenses to facilitate shipments to customers and expect to continue to do so until about midway through the second quarter.” 

Looking ahead, Prillaman said a backlog of orders building for the company’s nursery and youth line set to debut next week at High Point Market is encouraging.

"In the meantime, as our growth plans continue to develop, we are committed to protecting shareholder value,” he said. “We made adjustments to the company's cost structure late in the quarter to minimize year-to-date losses by the end of second quarter and to generate net profits beginning in the third quarter at the current level of sales."

The company expects to release first quarter earnings after the market closes May 4.