USPL Announces Results for Quarter, YTD

U.S. Plastic Lumber Corp. announced its operating results for the quarter, as well as the first nine months of the year.

In addition, the company announced that it recently re-opened its Ocala, Fla., facility on a limited production basis. The plant was closed due to an explosion this past August. The company anticipates the facility to be at full production by the end of January.

Revenues for the quarter were $8 million, compared with $10.6 million the same time last year, a drop of 25 percent. The decrease was mainly due to lower sales of the company's building products and the sale of the Cornerboard packaging division this past May. Net loss for the quarter was $4.4 million.

Revenues for the first nine months were $28.9 million, compared with $39.8 million the same time last year, a drop of 27 percent. The company attributed part of this decrease to not having sufficient inventory to meet the demand for its building products during the first nine months of 2003, mainly due to cash constraints and slower production rates of some of its newly formulated decking products. Revenues were also affected by the sale of the Cornerboard packaging.

Mark Alsentzer, chairman, CEO and president of USPL said, "We are pleased to see the improvements as a result of the cost reduction initiatives that we implemented at the end of last year. Although we have made significant progress year-to-date in reducing our SG&A expenses and our interest expense, our near-term results have been impacted by the company's working capital constraints. The company is aggressively pursuing opportunities to further improve its balance sheet and its access to capital to enable it to meet the growing product demand and improve its overall operating performance. In addition, the company is working diligently with its insurance carrier to return the Ocala plant to full operations in the first quarter of 2004. We believe that the demand for alternative wood products has never been stronger and reductions in costs position the Company well to re-gain profitability with increasing sales."