Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Ethan Allen Warns of Sales, Profit Declines
January 11,
2017 by Larry Thomas in Financial Reports, Industry 
Ethan Allen (NYSE: ETH) warned Wednesday that earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 31 would be well below the same quarter in the previous year, as written orders were down 3.6% at its retail stores and delivered sales fell 6.2%.
The company said adjusted earnings per share would be approximately 38 cents to 39 cents, down from 55 cents per share in the comparable quarter and well below most Wall Street estimates.
The company blamed the declines on a “challenging retail environment” and noted that it had a record increase of 15.3% in written orders in the prior year quarter.
"We are positioned well to benefit from many initiatives including freshening of our offerings, launch of the Ethan Allen/Disney collaboration, improvements to our manufacturing and logistics resulting in faster deliveries, relocations and renovations of our design centers, and investments in technology,” said Farooq Kathwari, chairman, president and CEO. “We are seeing increases in sales from on-line interactions and we expect to see continued increases due to the combination of technology and personal services of our interior designers.”
Based on preliminary financial information, the company said expects to report consolidated net sales of $194.7 million, which is down from $207.5 million in the comparable quarter.
“Our plans are to start substantially increasing our marketing in both digital and traditional mediums starting from our current third quarter with continued increases as we move forward," Kathwari said.
The company will release complete financial results for the quarter, the second quarter of its fiscal year, after the market closes on Jan. 25.