Feb. 19--These are trying times at Furniture Brands International. They have been that way for a while.

The Clayton-based company, one of the largest residential furniture marketers in the U.S., has undergone plant closings, millions of dollars in losses and expectations of further declines, as a slumping economy drags down furniture companies' business.

In the last three months of 2008, Furniture Brands' sales dropped 20 percent as shoppers held back on buying big-ticket items. Battered by non-cash charges related to depreciating assets, the company reported a loss of $342 million or $7.00 a share.

"Stunningly large," veteran industry analyst Budd Bugatch called it.

Still, the parent company of Lane, Broyhill and Thomasville, among other brands, says it is setting itself up for a recovery. Furniture Brands executives say the closure of three large plants and reduction of 1,400 jobs -- about 15 percent of its U.S. work force -- last year will allow the company to bounce back.

"Today, we have the right plants and people to match our business outlook," said Ralph Scozzafava, chairman and chief executive. "Those were hard actions that we took last year, and we'll have financial benefits (in later years)."

Furniture Brands insists it has shored up its balance sheet. At year end, it had $190 million in long-term debt, compared to $107 million in cash. Its net debt of $83 million is the smallest amount since 1992. "We're taking a huge amount of risk out of this company," Scozzafava said.

Executives with the company acknowledge that Furniture Brands' lack of discipline has harmed it. Scozzafava said "poor product development discipline" and gaps in supply chain management caused unpopular items to pile up unsold. In response, the company took what it called "aggressive action" to cut inventory. It gave steep discounts and took $40 million in charges to get rid of slow-moving products.

In the future, Scozzafava said, the company will use more timely data from consumer testing to identify and ax poor designs before they launch. Meanwhile, Furniture Brands is toughening its procedures for collecting bills while abandoning unprofitable products and customers, said Steven Rolls, chief financial officer.

Still, analysts complain that Furniture Brands doesn't give enough information to help them decipher the true state of affairs.

"We do not have a good feel for what level of losses the company is truly operating at," wrote Stifel Nicolaus analyst John Baugh.