Armstrong Third Quarter Income Rises

Lancaster, PA, Oct. 31, 2011 -- Armstrong World Industries said its third quarter net income more than doubled from a year ago.

Armstrong reported net earnings of $52.5 million, or $0.89 per share, compared to $24.6 million, or $0.42 per share last year.

Net sales rose 4.6% to $773.6 million from $739.8 million a year ago.

"The economic climate continues to be a challenge and, as a result, we saw lower volumes across most of our businesses," said CEO Matt Espe.

"We achieved increased profitability through the execution of our cost savings plans, pricing ability, mix gains from new products and leverage of LEAN investments. We continue to focus on running the businesses and managing factors within our control and, in the third quarter, we were encouraged to see our Wood Flooring business, in particular, have another strong earnings quarter following their impressive Q2 results."

Resilient flooring sales fell 1.6% to $271 million, while wood flooring sales rose 6.2% to $127.2 million.

The company lowered its guidance, saying it now expects growth of slightly less than 4% for the full year, down from its previous expectation of 6%.

"We continue to see prolonged weakness in our residential focused businesses, reflecting the reduced new housing and remodeling market opportunity," said CFO Tom Mangas