Home Payment Woes

National Home Centers Inc. is $3.5 million behind on its accounts with trade vendors, according to its 10-K report recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. National Home has lost about $500,000 in discounts with those vendors because of its inability to make timely payments.

The reason for the shortfall is mounting losses at the Springdale-based company. Over the past three years, National Home Center’s net loss has totaled $17.7 million, including $13 million last year.

National Home has a revolving credit arrangement that expires in December 1999, but it has struggled to meet the financial covenant requirements because of its mounting losses.

The firm has five pieces of undeveloped land and buildings that it’s trying to sell. The only property not under contract for a sale is a 30-acre tract in Branson, Mo., listed for $500,000.

Properties under contract include 7.5 acres in Fort Smith, which has an asking price of $1.5 million; 26 acres on the south side of Fayetteville, which has an asking price of $1.8 million; 7.6 acres of land and a former store in Conway, with a debt of $2.8 million and an asking price of $2.8 million; 15.7 acres of land and a former store in Fayetteville, which has an asking price of $6.5 million and debt of $2.9 million; and 14.7 acres of the company’s corporate office land, with an asking price of $275,000.