Building Materials Holding Corp., San Francisco, CA, a provider of building materials and construction services to professional residential builders and contractors, reported sales for the third quarter of 2008 were $364 million, down 39% from the same quarter a year ago. The company reported a net loss of $45.2 million, compared to a net loss of $4.2 million in the third quarter of 2007.
 
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2008, sales decreased 39% to $1.1 billion from $1.8 billion in the same period of 2007. BMHC recorded a net loss of $111 million, compared to profit of $18.6 million for the prior year period.
 
As the unprecedented volatility in the capital markets and the downturn in the homebuilding industry persisted, we remained focused on our goal of realigning our business to the current environment,”said Robert E. Mellor, CEO. “Importantly, we successfully negotiated an amendment to our $540 million secured credit facility. Year-to-date, we have reduced selling, general and administrative expenses by $51.2 million, or 16 percent. While our third quarter financial results continued to be significantly impacted by the difficult operating environment, we are seeing an improvement in our ongoing operations and we comfortably met the bank covenants at the end of the quarter.”