The Valspar Corporation nearly doubled its net income when it reported first quarter net of $22,541,000 versus $11,698,000 for the comparable period last year. Sales for the quarter quarter ended January 27, 2006, increased 13 percent to $629,765,000, compared to $557,144,000 last year. 

Commenting on the first quarter, President and CEO William L. Mansfield said, "We are pleased with our first quarter results in light of the challenging raw material environment. Both our Paint and Coatings segments delivered strong sales growth in the quarter with exceptional growth in our Architectural product line due to continued retail sales momentum and favorable weather conditions. Margin improvement reflects significant pro-gress in recovering raw material cost increases experienced over the past two years."

On the outlook for the balance of the year, Mansfield said, "We expect full year sales growth of 9-10 percent, second quarter earnings in the range of $0.39 to $0.43 per share and full year earnings per share in the range of $1.45 to $1.55. These earnings estimates include expensing stock-based compensation and the net cost of manufacturing rationalization."