EAC Industries Inc. said Monday it will have a ”substantial loss” in the fourth quarter and for the year because of the sale of the assets of its Sterling Manufactured Homes Inc. subsidiary, located in Albemarle, N.C., to Oak Creek of North Carolina Inc.
Terms were withheld. The sale was closed Dec. 31.
Chairman Peter B. Fritzsche said that with the sale, the Chicago-based firm has discontinued its manufacture of mobile homes. Fritzsche said the sale will cause a substantial loss for the quarter and year ended Jan. 31, but declined to state the figures.
”It didn`t make much sense for us to try to turn it around, so we decided to put our resources into the nonhousing areas, where we are making money,” Fritzsche said.
Fritzsche said that EAC`s nonhousing subsidiaries have been profitable throughout the year, showing a 51 percent increase in operating income for the three quarters ended Oct. 31.
He said that part of the housing unit`s problem was that as more mortgage money became available to purchase traditional housing, less was available to buy mobile homes.
In the year-earlier fourth quarter, the company reported a loss from continuing operations of $1.3 million.
For that year, EAC industries had a loss from continuing operations of $1.3 million before income from discontinued operations of $300,000, which made the final loss $987,000.
