Net sales decreased by $3,785,000 for the fiscal third quarter of 2012, compared with the third quarter of 2011, primarily due to a one-time sales promotion in the prior period. Year-to-date sales were $195,238,000, with a loss from continuing operations of $240,000 or $0.02 per diluted share, compared with sales of $204,761,000 and income from continuing operations of $1,474,000 or $0.11 per diluted share, from the year-ago period. When adjusting for the number of weeks in the two periods, net sales for the year-to-date were 2.4% below the same period of 2011.

Commenting on the results, Daniel K. Frierson, chairman and chief executive officer, said, "We continued our strong residential growth in the quarter with 6.5% increase in product sales, excluding a one-time promotional special in the prior year. Each of our residential brands had nice increases through the retail and design channels. The only area of decline was in our mass merchant category, due primarily to the non-repeating one-time promotion in 2011.

“Our residential product sales, including mass merchants, declined 2.9% relative to a slight growth for the industry. Our commercial sales during the period were hurt by a slow start to the quarter with a sales decline of 10.6% relative to the industry growth in the low-single digits. We are excited by our new management team led by Lee Martin, who came on board during the quarter, and who has developed new growth plans for our commercial business. Our business started the quarter slower but strengthened throughout the period and has continued to be stronger during October.

"Our focus on new products to drive growth has continued with our new Speak Collection of high-performance modular carpet tile being introduced during the period. This, along with the continued success of our Chrome Collection in the commercial marketplace, has given us confidence in seeing stronger results in the year ahead. Project activity in the commercial market has been exceeding expectations.

“The launch of Stainmaster TruSoft during the quarter is proving successful across all of our residential product lines and market categories. We are reaping the rewards of being one of the first two participants to market with this revolutionary breakthrough in soft fiber technology. We continued double digit growth in the wool market, led by the introduction of our line of Permaset wool products which give the designer unlimited color flexibility.

“We have spent heavily this year with increased investment in new product development and sampling of products to our customers. We remain committed to being the industry leader in style and design and this investment enables us to continue outperforming the industry.