Commenting on its second quarter figures, Glenrothes-based Rodime Plc says that the 9% increase in sales over the December quarter reflects significant demand for the company’s new 100Mb and 210Mb disk drives and an easing of supply constraints that hurt Rodime last year. The high capacity 3.5 drives represented 51% of turnover in the March quarter, up from 29% in the December quarter, and only 6% in the year-ago period. The lower capacity drives have not been price-competitive, Rodime says but it doesn’t feel able to discontinue them, and is looking at ways of reducing their manufacturing costs. Shareholders have now approved the sale of the Rodime Systems retail subsidiary for $5m cash, a $311,000 promissory note and a 3% stake in the buyer, Profit Technology Inc, and Profit has committed to buying $1.6m more inventory 70 days after the transaction is closed. Unfortunately, the $1.04m gain on the sale was offset by bad debt provision of $1.08m against the $2.5m owed to Rodime by Jasmine Technologies Inc, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. The company is in process of carrying out its plan to transfer more production to Singapore from Scotland but the Scottish plant will continue to manufacture the disk drives destined for the European market.
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