Bush Reports First Quarter Net Income of $5,464,000.

Furniture World News

Bush's first quarter 1998 net income climbed approximately 3.5 percent to $5,464,000 from $5,278,000 for the same period last year. Diluted earnings per share was 37 cents on 14,815,000 shares outstanding compared to 37 cents on 14,343,000 shares outstanding for the same quarterly period a year ago. Net sales reached a record $108,813,000, up from $70,867,000 for the same period a year ago, an approximate 54 percent gain. Sales and earnings increases were as expected for the quarter. According to Paul Bush, President and Chairman of the Board, the sales increase primarily reflected good sales momentum at retail, and their second full quarter of sales from German subsidiary, Rohr-Bush. Earnings improved due to higher sales volumes, but were somewhat offset by costs associated with the integration of our two new operations in Europe, and the impact of continuing escalating domestic production requirements to meet customer demands. They continue to expand capacity to meet the increased demand from customers. In this effort, they recently completed the acquisition of Fournier Furniture, Inc., which they anticipate will provide an additional capacity of 100 million dollars per year. The Board of Directors increased the quarterly cash dividend from 3.5 cents per share to 5 cents per share paid on May 22, 1998 to stockholders of record on May 8, 1998.