American Greetings reports lower first-quarter sales and earnings

During the first quarter of fiscal 2010, American Greetings sold its retail store operations to Schurman Fine Papers, which operates card and gift retail stores under the name Papyrus. American Greetings recognized a preliminary non-cash loss on the disposition, recorded within the retail operations segment, of $28.3 million (after-tax of approximately $17.4 million). At the time of the sale of the retail stores, American Greetings also purchased the wholesale division of Schurman which supplies Papyrus brand greeting cards primarily to leading specialty, mass, grocery and drug store channels and purchased a 15 percent equity interest in Schurman.

American Greetings’ online division, AG Interactive, offers digital photo sharing and personal publishing at PhotoWorks.com and Webshots.com and provides a one-stop source for online graphics and animations at Kiwee.com.