New York - The tool maker Black & Decker barely scraped into the black with its first quarter results as floundering European demand and the rising dollar ate into profit margins, company results released Thursday showed.
The US firm is projecting diminishing returns for the rest of the year, after earnings dropped by more than 90 per cent from the first quarter last year, to 5 million dollars. Revenues were down by 30 per cent to 1.1 billion dollars.
The results were worse than the firm had expected, prompting an even harsher search to save money, the company said.