MONTES CLAROS, Brazil–Springs Global, the home textiles unit of Coteminas, reported an operating profit of $245,640 in the second quarter, compared with an operating loss of $46.1 million in the second quarter of 2007.
The company managed to push its operations into the black despite a 15.4 percent drop in second-quarter sales, which totaled $451 million. Springs slashed its general and administrative expenses by 37.8 percent, its cost of sales by 18.3 percent and its selling expenses by 13 percent. A Springs statement said these cuts were “the result of continuous process improvement and consolidation of administrative functions in the United States, along with the appreciation of the real,” Brazil’s currency.
Looking at the company’s results by product category, Springs’ fashion bedding sales fell 16.1 percent in the quarter, its bath-segment sales dropped 29.6 percent and its basic-bedding sales were off by 25 percent. Springs attributed the declines in all three segments to the slowdown in the U.S. economy.