BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 3, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Q.E.P. CO., Inc. (Nasdaq:QEPC) (the "Company" or "Q.E.P.") announced that last week it purchased a large manufacturing and distribution facility in the City of Adelanto, California. The 5.8 acre property, located in San Bernardino County, adds a significant new facility strategically located to provide improved service to the Company's West Coast customers, substantially expand the Company's adhesives and dry set powders manufacturing capabilities, and continue the Company's focus on aggressive cost management practices. With this addition, the Company now boasts a "complete" West Coast facility enabling consolidation of customer orders containing adhesives, powders and tools for the Company's vast array of products and brands.
Lewis Gould, Q.E.P.'s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated: "Our move into Adelanto, California, represents an important investment in the Company's core businesses that will place us closer to our West Coast customers, expand our market presence in the Western United States, and readily facilitate expansion of our Western U.S. operations as dictated by market demands."
"We are very pleased to welcome Q.E.P., a leading, global company, to San Bernardino County," said Brian P. McGowan, Economic Development Agency Administrator for the County of San Bernardino. "Thanks to industry leaders like Q.E.P., San Bernardino County is a key logistics and business center for companies with the savvy to thrive in a global economy."
The Company currently has U.S. manufacturing and/or distribution facilities in Dalton, Georgia; Mexico, Missouri; and Henderson, Nevada. During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, the Company intends to relocate the current distribution activities at its Henderson, Nevada facility to the Adelanto facility. The Company will not renew the lease at the Henderson facility when it expires in January 2008.
Q.E.P. Co., Inc., founded in 1979, is a leading worldwide manufacturer, marketer and distributor of a broad line of flooring tools and accessories for the home improvement market. Under brand names including QEP(r), ROBERTS(r), Capitol(r), Vitrex(r) and Elastiment(tm), the Company markets over 3,000 specialty tools and flooring related products used primarily for surface preparation and installation of ceramic tile, carpet, vinyl and wood flooring. The Company sells its products to home improvement retail centers and specialty distribution outlets in 50 states and around the world.
Certain statements in this press release, including statements relating to market opportunities for the Company in the Western United States, expansion of the Company's business in the Western United States, and the Company's intentions regarding the relocation of its facilities, are forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this press release and are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and from historical results of operations. Among the risks and uncertainties that could cause such a difference are our assumptions relating to the expected growth in sales of our products, the continued success of our manufacturing processes, continued increases in the cost of raw materials and finished goods, improvements in productivity and cost reductions, the continued success of initiatives with certain of our customers, the success of our price increases initiatives, the success of our sales and marketing efforts and other business and economic factors. A more detailed discussion of risks attendant to the forward-looking statements included in this press release are set forth in the "Forward-Looking Statements" section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended February 28, 2007, filed with the SEC, and in other reports already filed with the SEC.