Boca Raton, FL, January 17, 2007--Q.E.P. Co. reported financial results for its fiscal 2007 third quarter and nine months ended November 30, 2006.
Lewis Gould, Q.E.P.'s chairman and chief executive officer, stated: "Because there will be no conference call highlighting some of the financial results, I have gone into more detail in discussing my comments for this release, which parallels our 10-Q filing. Business conditions continued to be challenging. However, sales stayed firm with the prior quarter and increased 3.1 percent, compared to the same period last year. I am greatly pleased that our sales for the nine-month period increased 4.8 percent to an all-time record of $163,063,000.
"For the fiscal 2007 third quarter, the company reported net income of $370,000, or $0.10 per diluted share, compared to net income of $345,000, or $0.09 per diluted share for the third quarter last year. After excluding the change in the put warrant liability and other non-recurring items, the company reported net income of $971,000, or $0.26 per diluted share for the nine months as compared to $829,000, or $0.22 per diluted share during the same period last year.
"I am especially pleased to report that for the third quarter of fiscal 2007, the company generated $2.4 million of cash from operations, compared to $1.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2006. For the first nine months of fiscal 2007, the company generated $2.5 million of cash from operations, compared to $1.7 million for the same period last year.
"Although, the outlook for the current quarter remains uncertain, the company is pursuing several new initiatives to offset current market weaknesses."
On January 10, 2007, the company reported that as of November 30, 2006, it was in violation of a financial covenant that requires the company to maintain a certain senior debt to trailing EBITDA ratio. On January 12, 2007, the company was granted a waiver of the non-compliance with this covenant from the company's lenders.
