Crown Crafts cuts losses to $3.5M

By Don Hogsett -- Home Textiles Today, 9/3/2001 12:00:00 AM

ATLANTA —

Crown Crafts Inc., the surviving company of a complex two-way split in which the adult bedding business was spun off last month in a sale to former ceo Michael Bernstein, said it expects to record an estimated $3.5 million loss for the quarter ended July 1, a sharp improvement over a year-before loss of $10.9 million.

Sales during the same period declined by 33.2 percent, to $38.9 million from $58.2 million the prior year.

The company provided the sales and earnings snapshot in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission requesting a delay in filing the complete 10-Q quarterly earnings report.

The company said it expects to file the complete report by the end of September.

In a move that virtually ensures the survival of the company, Crown sold its adult bedding business to Bernstein for $8.5 million, plus the assumption of some liabilities. Under newly named chairman and ceo Randall Chestnut, a re-energized Crown Crafts will focus on the highly profitable infant's and juvenile products business, which Chestnut built up through a long string of acquisitions.

Meanwhile, Bernstein has taken the reins of the basic bedding business, Design Works Holding Co., which will produce and market bedding under the Calvin Klein Home and Royal Sateen nameplates. The smaller, more tightly focused Design Works, Bernstein said, is now making money after a long struggle integrating the Calvin Klein Home business as well as coping with costly systems issues.