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Steelcase announced it has called back most of its manufacturing workforce from temporary layoffs as government restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic are beginning to ease. All of the company's manufacturing and distribution locations around the world are open, with some locations in the process of scaling up capacity levels and a few locations continuing to be subject to government restrictions that prevent them from operating at normal capacity. Many office and showroom locations are also beginning to reopen, although some remain restricted under stay-at-home mandates. As of May 1, 2020, the company's backlog of customer orders was approximately $700 million, or approximately 23% higher than the prior year, as government mandates significantly limited the company's ability to manufacture products and fulfill orders throughout much of the world over the last two months. The company expects to manufacture and ship most of its current backlog by the end of July. As the company increases production and begins to reopen offices and showrooms around the world, the company announced that it is easing the reductions in pay and hours implemented in March and April across much of its global salaried workforce. In the U.S., the company has eased the pay and hour reductions for most of its salaried employees from 50% to 20%, and the company will continue to pay the full cost of employee health insurance premiums while the temporary pay reductions are in effect. Similar pay and/or work hour reductions are in place globally and in some cases are also being eased from previous reductions, with variations on a country-by-country basis. The company eased the reductions in base pay for the company's CEO from a $1 annual salary to a 50% base pay reduction and for the company's other executive officers from a 60% reduction to a 20% reduction. The company's Board of Directors also has lowered the reduction in their cash retainer from a 100% reduction to a 50% reduction. As previously announced on March 24, the company also has made significant reductions in its operating expenses during the first quarter of fiscal 2021 by eliminating travel and events, overtime, temporary labor and annual merit increases and scaling back project spending, as well as significantly reducing capital expenditures by delaying longer-term projects. The company intends to maintain these spending reductions while incoming order levels remain significantly impacted by the global pandemic. As of May 1, 2020, the company's total liquidity was approximately $774 million, comprised of cash, cash equivalents and the cash surrender value of company-owned life insurance, compared to $701 million at the end of fiscal 2020. The increase in liquidity during the first two months of the first quarter of fiscal 2021 reflected: $250 million of borrowings under the company's global credit facility; $151 million of estimated variable compensation payments and benefit plan contributions relating to fiscal year 2020 as well as retirement and deferred compensation plan payments; $39 million of share repurchases in the first three weeks of March made under a Rule 10b5-1 repurchase plan entered into in December 2019; $8 million of quarterly dividends paid in April 2020, which represented a 53% reduction compared to the quarterly dividends paid in January 2020; and $21 million of estimated net positive cash flow from working capital reductions, net of operating losses and other items.

Revenue for the fiscal months of March and April decreased 39 percent compared to the prior year, with year-over-year decreases of 21% in March and 60% in April. Through the first three weeks in March, the company estimates revenue increased approximately 10 percent compared to the prior year, then declined significantly over the remainder of March and April while many of the company's manufacturing facilities and distribution centers were closed under government mandate. Adjusted for currency translation effects and a divestiture, orders declined 31 percent in March and April compared to the prior year. Orders were relatively flat compared to the prior year during the first three weeks of March, then declined 42 percent over the remainder of March and April compared to the prior year.