Signal Cos. Net Increases Despite Decline in Sales

Despite a first-quarter sales decline, Signal Cos. posted $66.1 million in earnings, up 9%. Sales slipped 6.7% to $1.4 billion for the quarter ended March 31.

Company officials linked the sales slide to “a decline in engineering and construction revenue.” Signal said it also was hurt by lackluster activity in the petroleum and petrochemical processing industries and “procedural changes” by the Defense Department that “curtailed the production and delivery of certain military equipment and systems until later in the year.”

Forrest N. Shumway, chairman and chief executive, said he is “cautiously optimistic for the remainder of 1985 because of a softening in the general economy.”