Market & competition affect upholstery maker Quaker's Q2 result
29 Jul '05
5 min read
"They remain determined to restore the company to profitability as quickly as possible. To that end, they took steps during the second quarter to reduce their annual costs by an additional $6.0 million. They are also continuing to consolidate their Fall River manufacturing operations into fewer facilities, and they are actively marketing their excess real estate, including the sixty acres of undeveloped land they own in Fall River."
These steps, along with the $26.0 million of annual variable and fixed costs they have taken out of their cost structure since last August, are part of a broader restructuring process intended to bring their operating costs in line with current market conditions, including continued heavy competition from Chinese imports in certain segments, and to generate cash flows sufficient to reduce further their already low debt load, Mr. Liebenow added.
The overall goal of their restructuring effort is to build volume, cut costs and allocate their resources in a way that will enable us to reach both their financial and strategic objectives, and with respect to growing their top-line, they are very pleased by the response their newest product introductions received at the High Point Showtime Fabric Fair held earlier this month.
They were particularly encouraged by the excitement generated by their major new collection of domestically-produced sueded products. These products are intended to give Quaker's customers a range of new high performance and differentiated alternatives to imported commodity faux suedes - and to give us a highly competitive entree in that market segment. They believe they're a success on both counts.
marketing@alchempro.com
