W.G. (Mickey) Holliman
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
"When we issued our 2002 year-end results in January, we said we
foresaw no improvement in the business climate for the near
term. Indeed, since then we have seen business conditions
deteriorate somewhat. We are experiencing a continuing soft
business environment at the upper-end and our middle-price
companies are seeing the difficult year-over-year comparisons we
predicted. In addition, adverse weather in January and February
resulted in multiple days of manufacturing downtime and
significantly impacted retail, particularly on Presidents' Day
weekend. As a result, we now foresee a year-over-year decrease
in first quarter revenues in the 2-3% range, rather than flat
sales as previously suggested. With respect to earnings, we now
expect earnings per share in the first quarter to be in the
$0.50 to $0.55 range as compared to $0.58 in the first quarter
of 2002, five cents lower than our previous guidance.
"For the full year 2003, we continue to believe we will see
some recovery in business in the second half, particularly as
international uncertainties are resolved and if our domestic
economy begins to show renewed strength. We expect solid
middle-price point business for the full year even though
comparison hurdles, particularly in the early part of 2003, are
substantial, and we expect moderately lower high-end sales
through the year's first half with anticipated improvement in
demand over the balance of the year. Our current expectation for
the full year 2003 is for sales growth in the low-single digits
with earnings per share in the $2.30 to $2.40 range, ten cents
less than previous guidance. We will update this guidance, as is
our custom, when we issue our first quarter results on April 23,
2003."
