Louisiana-Pacific Releases Fourth Quarter and Year-end Results

Sales for Nashville-based Louisiana-Pacific improved in the last three months of 2009 but the company saw an overall sales decrease for the year.

Executives with the wood-products manufacturer say 2009 sales declined 23 percent as new home construction continued to lag. LP CEO Rick Frost says it’s not a year he’d like to repeat.

“I am very happy to put 2009 in the books and behind us. It was the most chaotic year that I have experienced in my 33 years in the industry and it was a very, very difficult year in which nothing came easy.”

To cut costs, LP laid off more than 700 workers, shut down mills in Georgia and Texas and trimmed shifts elsewhere.

The year did end on an up-tick, with sales increasing 10 percent in the fourth quarter compared to 2008. Frost says the company has an optimistic outlook for 2010, though the housing market will continue to be volatile. Still, he says it feels like the worst is behind them.