Crown Crafts buys time with extension of loans

ATLANTA — Providing Crown Crafts with a little more breathing room, the company's lenders have pushed back the expiration date of the company's loans to Aug. 6 from June 30.

Crown Crafts said it and its lenders are working on a longer term restructuring of the company's debt which is expected to be completed by next month.

At the same time, the company told the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission that it will be late in filing its annual 10-K filing for the fiscal year ended April 1. The company said results for the year will not be available until the routine annual audit is completed.

In its most recently filed financial statement, Crown Crafts reported a loss in its third fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31 of $5.9 million, compared with a $1.7 million deficit the year before. Reflecting the sale of the woven products division and the shutdown of the studio bedding line, sales in the period declined by 26.3 percent, to $67.1 million from $91.0 million. For the nine months year to date, the company recorded a loss of $18.2 million vs. a prior-year loss of $7.3 million. Nine-month sales declined by 13.9 percent, to $207.4 million from $241 million.