Business

From the PR Newswire

WARREN, Pa., Jan. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- United Refining Company, a leading regional refiner and marketer of petroleum products announces operating results for the first fiscal quarter ended November 30, 2008.

Net sales for the three months ended November 30, 2008 and November 30, 2007 were $770.5 million and $693.6 million, respectively. This was an increase of $76.9 million or 11.1% over the comparable quarter for the prior year. Increases in net sales for the quarter were due primarily to increases in selling prices.

At least one banking company with branch locations in Western New York will not receive government money under the U.S. Treasury Department’s Capital Purchase plan.

Northwest Savings Bank has learned that it does not currently qualify for TARP (troubled assets relief program) funds because it is structured as a mutual holding company, according to Jim Holding, vice president of marketing.

Dec. 5--Sales figures skyrocketed for the United Refining Co. when gas prices hovered around $4 a gallon earlier this year.

But company profits took a beating from crude oil prices that topped $147 a barrel.

United Refining, the company that owns the region's Country Fair and Kwik Fill stations and supplies much of the gasoline in northwestern Pennsylvania, reported a net loss of almost $50 million in its fiscal year that ended Aug. 31.

NWSB announced net income for the quarter ended March 31, 2008 of $12.6 million, or $0.26 per diluted share. This represents an increase of $1.3 million, or 11.7%, over the same quarter last year when net income was $11.3 million, or $0.23 per diluted share. The annualized returns on average shareholders' equity and average assets for the current quarter were 8.15% and 0.75% compared to 7.44% and 0.69% for the same quarter last year.