Farooq Kathwari
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Ethan Allen sales were $139 million in the fourth fiscal quarter ending June 30, down only slightly from its fiscal third quarter but off 41 percent from a year ago. The company lost $17 million in part due to restructuring charges as it laid off more than 300 factory workers in Vermont and Maine.
Danbury-based Ethan Allen sells furniture and interior design services. Earlier this month, the company announced it would transform all U.S. manufacturing to a custom order model.
For all fiscal 2009, Ethan Allen sales were down 31 percent to $674 million, and the company lost $53 million.
“Fiscal 2009, while extremely challenging, provided us the opportunity to accelerate our process of reinvention,” said Farooq Kathwari, CEO of Ethan Allen, in a prepared statement. “We focused on two major initiatives: first, to bring our expense and cost structure down; second, to implement many initiatives that will create a strong competitive difference and help grow our sales and profitability. Our move toward custom production in our case-goods manufacturing and the launch of the new interior-design affiliate program are just the latest examples of these initiatives.”
