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Buckeye expects higher sales in the April-June quarter

05 May '08

2 min read

Buckeye Technologies Inc announced earnings for the January-March quarter of 26 cents per share compared to 17 cents per share in the year ago quarter. These results include a $0.8 million (2 cents per share) tax benefit related to the identification of additional R&D tax credits.

Earnings for the prior year period included $0.8 million after tax (2 cents per share) in restructuring expenses associated with consolidations made in our European Sales Offices, Product and Market Development, and corporate overhead.

Net sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 increased 5% to $201.9 million as compared to fiscal 2007 third quarter net sales of $193.0 million. Net sales for the first nine months of fiscal 2008 were $610.2 million, up 7% compared to net sales of $569.1 million for the same period last year.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John B. Crowe said, “We had a another good quarter, with sales up 5% and earnings per share up 55% versus the same period a year ago, even though our operating performance fell short of our expectations.

Unplanned maintenance outages at our Florida wood cellulose facility, delayed shipments due to ocean vessel availability issues and lower Nonwovens sales negatively impacted our results. A significant accomplishment for the quarter was the reduction of long-term debt by $18.6 million during the quarter to $394.5 million.”

Mr. Crowe added, “We have recently replaced a sizeable portion of thenonwovens business that we lost at the beginning of January, and we expect Nonwovens sales and operating income to increase over the next several quarters.

While we expect higher sales and production volumes in the April-June quarter versus the immediately preceding quarter, we anticipate that our margins will be constrained by higher input and transportation costs.”

Buckeye Technologies Inc

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