April Sales Decreases 17.1% For Haverty Furniture

Furniture World News

HAVERTY FURNITURE COMPANIES, INC. reported sales for the month ended April 30, 2007. Havertys' April sales decreased 17.1% to $53.6 million, compared with $64.7 million in April 2006. On a comparable-store basis, April sales decreased 18.1%. Comparable-store sales do not include stores or locations opened, closed or otherwise non-comparable during the last 12 months. Sales for the first four months of 2007 decreased 10.6% to $244.7 million compared with $273.8 million in 2006. On a comparable-store basis, sales decreased 12.2% for the first four months. Clarence H. Smith, president and chief executive officer, said, "We are experiencing a very difficult sales environment in residential home furnishings. April is typically our weakest month of the year and that has been exacerbated by the continued sluggish housing market to produce a poor monthly performance. There was one less Saturday in April this year which had a modestly negative impact on our monthly results since it is our busiest day of the week. The April decline in our total written sales was approximately 14%, a smaller decrease from last year than the delivered sales, but still very disappointing." Havertys is a full-service home furnishings retailer with 121 showrooms in 17 states in the Southern and Midwestern regions providing its customers with a wide selection of quality merchandise in middle- to upper-middle price ranges. Additional information is available on the Company's website at www.havertys.com .