Dixie Group Swings To Profit, Gains Share

Chattanooga, TN, March 9, 2011 -- The Dixie Group reported a net income of $516,000, or $0.04 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2010 compared with a net loss of $3,623,000, or $0.29 per share, for the year-earlier period.

For the fiscal year, Dixie reported a net loss of $4,654,000, or $0.37 per share,compared with net loss of $42,241,000, or $3.42 per share, for the previous fiscal year.

Dixie reported sales of $65.1 million for the quarter, up 23% from $52,782,000 the previous year.

Sales for fiscal 2010 were $231,322,000, up 14% from sales of $203,480,000 in the prior year.

“The fourth quarter performance was comparatively better than the third quarter and continued the recovery in the upper end of the market that began in 2010," said CEO Daniel Frierson.

"Even though the residential market was down for the quarter; our residential sales grew by nearly 22%. In the commercial sector the company performed well with sales up 22% compared with commercial market sales up nearly 9%. We believe our results show that we are well on our way to achieving profitability at current business activity levels."

Frierson noted that industry sales were up about 1% for the year.

"We believe that the continued investment in new products and market activities allowed us to gain market share during this difficult period," Frierson said.