text: 22 April 2008 16:55 [Source: ICIS news]
  TORONTO (ICIS news)--Sherwin-Williams posted a 30% decline in first-quarter net income due to weak domestic demand, the US paint producer said on Tuesday.
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  Net income for the three months ended 31 March was $77.9m (€49.1m), down from $111.8m in the 2007 first quarter.
  Sales rose 1.5% to $1.78bn, on strong sales outside the ?xml:namespace>
  However, net sales in Sherwin’s paint stores business division fell 1.9% to $1.03bn, primarily due to soft US architectural paint sales and weak sales in non-paint categories.
  Excluding acquisitions, net sales from stores open for more than twelve calendar months decreased 6.5% over last year's first quarter, the company said.
  “Paint demand in the domestic new residential, residential repaint, DIY [do it yourself] and commercial markets was weaker during the first quarter than we had anticipated at the start of the year,” said CEO Christopher Connor.
  For the second quarter and the full year, Sherwin-Williams expected consolidated net sales growth in the low single digits over last year, he said.
  “With annual sales at that level, we are reaffirming our 24 March guidance that our diluted net income per common share for 2008 will be in the range of $4.70 to $4.85 per share compared to $4.70 per share earned in 2007."
  Sherwin last month cut first-quarter and full-year estimates, citing weak
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