The world's leading producer of household white goods Electrolux on Monday reported a pre-tax loss in the first quarter due to weak sales in North America and rising operating costs.
Pre-tax losses for the quarter stood at 149 million kronor (about 25 million U.S. dollars), compared to a pre-tax profit of 670 million kronor (about 112 million dollars) for the corresponding business period of 2007, Electrolux said in its quarterly report.
First-quarter sales dropped to 24.19 billion kronor (about 4.05billion dollars) from 24.93 billion kronor (about 4.18 billion dollars) in the same period a year earlier, due to an 18-percent sales decline in North America, the company said.
The result was also lower due to a number of significant non-recurring costs, including 120 million kronor (about 20.1 million dollars) in costs from the introduction of a new product range in the United States and 430 million kronor (about 72 million dollars) related to a cost-cutting program in Europe, it added.
Hans Straberg, Electrolux president and CEO, sounded optimistic about the whole year. "In spite of a tough beginning of 2008, the operating income for 2008 is expected to be in-line with 2007," he said in the report.
Source:Xinhua
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