Compiled from staff and wire reports

Cintas increases sales and quarterly earnings

Despite weaker national employment numbers, Cintas Corp., the Mason uniform supplier, reported higher sales and earnings for its fiscal third quarter.

For the three months ended Feb. 28, Cintas reported net income of $59 million, or 34 cents a share, up from $56 million, or 32 cents a share, a year ago. The results were in line with analysts' average estimate of 34 cents a share.

Revenues increased 22 percent to $664 million. Excluding acquisitions and the extra business day in the latest quarter, Cintas said revenues rose 4 percent.

Shrinking national employment, decreasing 300,000 in February, continues to put pressure on uniform rentals, the company said.

William Gale, Cintas' chief financial officer, declined to comment on specifics in a lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of Cintas employees by UNITE, the needletrades union.

But he said the company believes the suit is part of a union campaign to win company recognition without having employees vote on representation.

Timken relocating European operation

Canton, Ohio-based Timken Co., the largest U.S. maker of industrial and automotive bearings, plans to move production at a recently acquired factory in England to a cheaper operation in Romania, eliminating 104 jobs.

The Darlington, England, factory makes friction-reducing rollers for wheels and machine parts. Work there will be moved starting in July to a plant in Ploiesti, Romania, that can make more of the bearings at less cost, spokeswoman Denise Bowler said.

The plant in England was unable to reduce costs after earlier job cuts made when it was owned by Ingersoll-Rand Co., Timken said. Timken will cut up to 1,800 jobs and close plants to reduce annual costs by $120 million by the end of 2004.