ST. LOUIS - Furniture Brands International, a leading importer and manufacturer of wood and upholstered furniture, received warning that it must improve its stock price or risk being delisted from the new York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Furniture Brands' stock price, which opened at $0,98 this morning, has been below the NYSE's minimum common share price rule of $1 for more than a 30-day trading peirod, according to the St. Louis Business Journal.

According to NYSE rules, Furniture Brands, which includes Thomasville, Drexel Heritage, Broyhill, Lane, Hickory Chair and Henredon, among its product lines, has 6 months or up to its next annual shareholders meeting to bolster its stock price to regain compliance. To achieve compliance, Furniture Brands must achive at least a $1 price and average closing share price of at least $1 over a 30-day trading period ending on the last trading day of that same month.

Furniture Brands, which posted a net loss of $24.4 million on total sales of $808.3 million for the first nine months of its fiscal year, said it expects to regain compliance even if it must exercise a reverse stock split to do so.