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HNI HNI Corporation 600 East Second Street , Muscatine , Iowa 52761 , Tel 563 272 7400 , Fax 563 272 7347 , www.hnicorp.com News Release For Information Contact : Marshall H. Bridges , Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer ( 563 ) 272-7400 Matthew S. McCall , Vice President , Investor Relations and Corporate Development ( 563 ) 275-8898 HNI CORPORATION REPORTS EARNINGS FOR FIRST QUARTER FISCAL YEAR 2021 MUSCATINE , Iowa ( April 28 , 2021 ) - HNI Corporation ( NYSE : HNI ) today announced sales for the first quarter ended April 3 , 2021 of $ 484.3 million and net income of $ 15.0 million . GAAP net income ( loss ) per diluted share was $ 0.34 , compared to $ ( 0.56 ) in the prior year . Non - GAAP net income per diluted share was $ 0.36 , compared to $ 0.21 in the prior year . GAAP to non - GAAP reconciliations follow the financial statements in this release . First Quarter Highlights . • • Strong results in Residential Building Products : First quarter 2021 revenue grew 39 percent on a year - over - year basis , and operating margin expanded 600 basis points from prior - year , pre - COVID levels . This fueled a greater than 90 percent year - over - year increase in segment operating profit to a first quarter record of $ 39.8 million . Signs of improvement in Workplace Furnishings : First quarter 2021 revenue was down approximately 12 percent from the first quarter of 2020 , on an organic basis . This rate of decline was the lowest since the beginning of the pandemic . Strong incremental margins : Non - GAAP consolidated operating income increased 67 percent year- over - year ( or $ 9.4 million ) to $ 23.3 million on two percent organic revenue growth ( or $ 6.8 million ) . This equated to a 60 percent incremental operating margin , which was primarily driven by volume leverage in the Residential Building Products segment and solid cost control in the Workplace Furnishings segment , as both segments benefited from the Corporation's annual cost savings initiatives and cost actions taken last year to combat pandemic pressures . High - quality balance sheet : Quarter - ending debt levels were $ 176 million , essentially unchanged from last quarter and down from $ 230 million at the end of the first quarter of last year . The gross leverage ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2021 was approximately 0.9x , slightly improved from last 1