The appliance-making giant headquartered in Newton released its year-end financial report today. Maytag Corporation had per-share earnings of a dollar-53 for 2003, down from two-dollars-40-cents per share in 2002. Still, the company reports a two-point-seven percent increase in sales which totaled just under four-point-eight billion dollars. Maytag president and C-E-O Ralph Hake says the decreased sales and profitability of the Hoover floor care division offset respective sales increases of two-point-six percent and three-point-eight percent in the home appliance and commercial appliance segment. Hake says the closure of Maytag’s Galesburg, Illinois, refrigeration plant is on schedule for late this year.Hake says Maytag will negotiate two significant labor contracts this year, the Newton laundry contract in June and the Amana contract in September. He says they’ll be examining, especially in Newton, how to make the plants more cost effective and competitive so that they can become eligible for new platforms for new products that preserve jobs.Hake expects earnings in 2004 to be in the range of a dollar-90 to two-dollars per share.
