Pension Expense

Pension expense related to the Company’s defined benefit pension plan for the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2012, and October 2, 2011, follows:



	Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended
	September 30, 2012			October 2, 2011			September 30, 2012			October 2, 2011
Interest cost	$	2,125		$	2,419		$	6,375		$	7,170
Expected return on plan assets	(2,450		)	(2,655		)	(7,350		)	(7,581		)
Recognized net actuarial losses	2,000			1,599			6,000			4,963
Total net pension expense	$	1,675		$	1,363		$	5,025		$	4,552

In February 2011, the Company filed an application with the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") for a waiver of its minimum required contributions for pension plan year 2011. The amount of the waiver requested was approximately $17 million, scheduled to be funded in quarterly installments from April 2011 through January 2012, with a final contribution due in September 2012. The waiver request was approved by the IRS in October 2011, and as a result, the Company did not make any contributions to the plan for plan year 2011. Rather, the 2011 plan year required contributions of $17 million were deferred and will be amortized with interest at a rate of 6% over plan years 2012 through 2016.

Required contributions to the pension plan resumed in 2012, and accordingly, the Company has made contributions aggregating $7.7 million to its pension plan assets in the first nine months of fiscal 2012. In October 2012, subsequent to the end of the third quarter, the Company made an additional required contribution to its pension plan assets in an amount of $3.9 million. The Company expects to make its final contribution for plan year 2012 in January 2013, also in an amount of $3.9 million.

The Company disclosed in its Transition Report on Form 10-K for the six-month transition period ended January 1, 2012, that the estimated minimum contributions to the Company's pension plan for fiscal years 2013 and 2014 aggregated $52 million. Federal legislation signed into law in July 2012 provided pension plan sponsors with funding relief, allowing the use of an adjusted 25-year average corporate bond rate versus the current two-year average. Use of the 25-year average rate is expected to result in higher interest rate assumptions in valuing plan liabilities and in determining funding obligations, which in turn will result in lower minimum required contributions for plan sponsors in the near term. As a result of these legislative changes, the Company now estimates that fiscal 2013 and 2014 minimum required pension contributions will decrease to $20 million each year from the previously expected amount of $26 million for each year. In addition, fiscal 2015 minimum required contributions are currently estimated at $13 million from the previously estimated amount of $20 million. Estimated future contributions to achieve 100% funded status, as measured using current actuarial assumptions and in accordance with the recently enacted legislation, are projected to be approximately $96 million. The net present value of the estimated future contributions, discounted using the post-relief average interest rate of 5.05%, total approximately $77 million.