(Editor: Leona)

La-Z-Boy said its sales rose 3.3% in the quarter ended Jan. 24 while profits jumped nearly 9%.

Sales at its company-owned stores paced the top-line, rising 11.9% compared with the same quarter last year, while its wholesale upholstery business registered a 2.2% sales gain and posted an operating margin of 11%. Case goods sales were up 1%.

Net sales for the period — La-Z-Boy’s fiscal third quarter — totaled $357.9 million, up from $346.5 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Net income totaled $17.9 million or 34 cents per share. That was up from $16.5 million or 31 cents per share in the comparable quarter.

“We are continuing to make progress in all three segments of our business to deliver long-term profitable growth,” said Kurt Darrow, chairman, president and CEO. “We are increasing our penetration throughout North America with the build-out of the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries network.…”

At the end of the quarter, there were 328 La-Z-Boy stores, including 108 company-owned units. Darrow said he expects to have 111 company-owned stores by the end of the fiscal year in April, including four recently acquired from a Southern California licensee.

He said same-store sales for the store network were up 6.5%.

“With the objective of earning a double-digit margin in our wholesale upholstery segment and a mid-single-digit margin in our retail segment, we believe the combined wholesale/retail operating margin has the potential to approach the mid- to high teens,” Darrow said.

For the nine months ended Jan. 24, net sales were $1.05 billion, an increase of 4.6% from $1.004 billion in the first nine months of the previous fiscal year.

Nine-month net income was $50.6 million or 96 cents per share. That was up from $42.8 million or 80 cents per share in the comparable period.