Paul Fireman Asia Quotations

Internationally, our business improved as compared with the prior year as a result of our business re-engineering efforts and improving economics in much of Asia Pacific. In Europe, we experienced market share gains in several countries and are pleased that for the sixth consecutive quarter we reported growth in our backlog on a local currency basis when compared to the prior year. During 1999 we took steps to reduce our operating costs by simplifying many business processes and focusing our efforts on fewer activities.

take much longer for the Asia Pacific region to stabilize.

The overall industry outlook is not improving in the short term, and the economic conditions in Asia Pacific and Latin America continue to negatively impact our business, ... The domestic market is suffering from heavy promotions at retail, which is affecting our performance. And the well publicized conditions in Japan and Korea, our two largest markets in the Far East, has caused reported sales to decline approximately 50 percent when compared to last year.