Unifi widens loss in 4Q

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 7/28/2005 12:01:00 PM

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Unifi reported net income for its fourth quarter at a loss of $9 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $6 million, or 12 cents per share, last year.

However, the company reported a net loss of $41.2 million or 79 cents per share for the 2005 fiscal year -- an improvement over a net loss of $69.8 million or $1.34 per share for 2004. Net income for the current quarter was negatively impacted, according to Unifi, by a pre-tax charge of $8.2 million associated with the write-off of receivables associated with the recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Collins & Aikman.Bill Lowe, chief operating officer and chief financial officer for Unifi, said: "Although the results posted on our income statement for our 2005 fiscal year were generally as expected, the significant progress on working capital reduction made during the fourth quarter leaves our balance sheet stronger than anticipated. In our POY or spinning business, the integration ofKinstonis running ahead of schedule, and across all business units, we took the necessary step of drastically adjusting inventory levels, including selling off our aged inventory, which had a negative impact on our gross margin for the current quarter of approximately $3.9 million.”