Griffon's Clopay cuts jobs as investors step up pressure - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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Meanwhile, cost-cutting measures have eliminated dozens of salarier jobsat Clopay, where profits have been hammeredf by the U.S. housing slump and the pricing powedrof , its largestr customer. Nuveen's NWQ Investment Management Co. filed an amended Form 13G with the Securitiezs and Exchange Commissionon Oct. 9, disclosingv it owned 4.6 million Griffon The company reported a 10 percent stake inearlg January.
Since then, the market value of Griffon's shares has fallen more than 40 Two otherlarge investors, , which reportedx a 9 percent share as of June 28, and , with 5 percentt as of March 15, began pressuring Griffon late last year to separats Clopay from Griffon's military-orientexd electronic communications business. NWQ's filing said its investment was not for the purposse ofinfluencing control. It also disclosed in Marcy that it owns 10 percentof , an otherwise unaffiliatede company that's also headed by Harvey Blau, Griffon'sx chairman and CEO. So far, Clintom and Barington haven't succeeded in gettinfg Jericho, N.Y.
-based Griffon to revamp its conglomerate-like Griffon did announce job reductionsat , whicjh makes garage doors, and plastic film maker Co. as part of a cost-cuttingf program. Both companies' headquarters and technical centers are based in Mason ata 130,000-square-fooft facility. Griffon also hired to help it evaluate itsstrategic alternatives. In the results at the Clopay businessedhave deteriorated. The company won't repor t its third-quarter results until next but for the three months that endex June 30 compared to the same period in sales at Clopay Buildintg Products dropped 15 percentto $114 million, whilew sales at Clopay Plastic Productxs were flat at $97 million.
For the same operating profits in the garage door business fellfrom $10.e3 million to $4.6 million. The company said a 15 percent reductionn in salaried jobs during the seconc quarter wouldyield $5 million in annual cost savings. Operatinhg profits in the plastic film unit tumbled bynearlg two-thirds from $8.1 milliomn to $2.9 million. Griffon blamed the declin e on highermaterial costs, lower sellinyg prices to Procter, and a $1 million chargse related to job cuts.
Proctef uses Clopay's plastic films to make The company completed a reduction in forcw that affected all functionxsand locations, it said, including a 10 percent cut in salariede jobs that will save $4 million According to Griffon's 2006 annual Clopay Building Products had about 1,700o employees. It operates several manufacturing plants, including facilitieds in Russiaand Troy, both west-central Ohio Clopay Plastic Products employed abouft 1,200 people, including its expanding overseas Sales to Procter were about $226 million, or 55 percent of all in 2006. That was down from $255 million in 2005 and $302 millionm in 2004.
Blau told analysts during an Augusy conference callthat "due to presen t conditions in the residential housing and credit options that would increase shareholder value are beingv explored but are not attractive at this time." A Clopayt spokeswoman referred questions about its operations to Griffon. Eric Griffon's executive vice president and chief financial could not be reached at its officesin Jericho, N.Y.