Apogee Enterprises Announces First Quarter Fiscal 2004 Earnings

All earnings per share figures refer to diluted earnings per share. Revenues for the first quarter totaled $171.3 million, down 7 percent compared to revenues of $184.7 million in the same period last year.

"Our first quarter results were most heavily impacted by the continued decline in our architectural business," said Russell Huffer, Apogee chairman, president and chief executive officer. "Our earnings came in below our guidance due to greater than expected construction project delays and the lower margins experienced on short-term, fill-in work.

"I'm disappointed that we continue to see low levels of bid activity and slower in-bound orders in our architectural segment, which is our largest," he said. "And, as a result, we are lowering our full-year expectations to $0.50 to $0.65 per share from our previous guidance of approximately $0.85. Our revised fiscal 2004 outlook for the architectural segment includes revenues down by 5 to 7 percent and operating income down by about half compared to the prior year.

"This outlook is based on architectural market conditions and not our operating performance," said Huffer. "Our businesses are running as well as can be expected in this environment, and the segment has gained market share in the lag-adjusted non-residential construction market during the multi-year slowdown." Apogee's businesses get involved in projects an average of nine months after work starts and thus lag behind the construction market trends.