Sales dip 3.8% at carpet producer Dixie Group in Q2

Net sales decreased 3.8% for the fiscal second quarter of 2012, compared with the second quarter of 2011. Year-to-date sales were $129,416,000, and a loss from continuing operations of $508,000 or $0.04 per diluted share, compared with sales of $135,154,000 and income from continuing operations of $1,452,000 or $0.11 per diluted share, for the year-ago period. Net sales for the year-to-date were 0.8% below the same period of 2011 when adjusting for the number of weeks in the two periods.

Commenting on the results, Daniel K. Frierson, chairman and chief executive officer, said, "Dixie had strong residential product growth in the quarter with 5.6% improvement in sales compared to a decline for the industry. Our commercial products, however, declined against a strong period a year ago.

“The industry, we believe, had growth commercially during the quarter. Notable was growth in our upper-end residential segments with over 11% sales increase, excluding sales to mass merchants. Favorable activity early in the year slowed as we got later into the quarter. We expect this slower pace to continue throughout the summer months.

"Our strategy of continuing to invest in new products during this slow economic recovery has proven successful, and we will continue to do so with the launch this quarter of both our line of Stainmaster TruSoft products, as well as our new "permaset" wool dyeing process. Dixie is one of only two suppliers to deliver TruSoft, the new standard in softness, to the market this year. We have made substantial investments in the launch of this new fiber system and the series of products that will be offered in all of our brands.

“With the new "permaset" dyeing process, offering unlimited color selection to the high-end design community in wool products, we hope to build upon the double digit growth we experienced this past quarter in all of our wool product lines. We hope our mass merchant segment, down from a very strong period a year ago, will see growth later in the year as we introduce new products through this channel.

“In an effort to strengthen our performance in the commercial sector, we will be bringing in new leadership for our commercial business. We have developed and are launching, in addition to the new Chrome Collection, a new series of value oriented commercial products to the design community. Despite our sales slowing in the second quarter relative to expectations, we will continue to invest in new products in both the residential and commercial markets to accelerate growth during this difficult economic recovery.