Armstrong Flooring (Lancaster, Pa.) reported a loss of $38.6 million within its wood flooring business segment, a significant decrease compared with an operating income of $4.3 million in the third quarter of 2016.
Sales of wood flooring decreased 7.4 percent from $123.2 million in the third quarter of 2016 to $114.1 million in the third quarter of 2017.
The loss was due in part to the company closing two wood flooring manufacturing plants at an expense of $23.7 million and a non-cash impairment of $12.5 million related to the Bruce trademark. The company expects the plant closings should improve its cost position by $8 million–$10 million annually.
Across the entire business, Armstrong reported a loss of $18.7 million in the third quarter of 2017, a 301 percent decrease compared with its profit of $9.3 million in the third quarter of 2016. Sales totaled $308.5 million, down 1.6 percent from sales of $313.4 million reported in the third quarter of 2016.
“Third quarter 2017 results were in line with our expectations…” said CEO Don Maier in a statement. “However, market pressures in our legacy product portfolio remain, and we are aggressively working to improve our competitive position.”
