The Company reported first quarter net sales of $25.4 million, down slightly from last year’s net sales of $26.1 million. Net income for the quarter was $2.4 million, or 11 cents per share, compared with net income of $3.6 million, or 17 cents per share for the same period last year. Earnings in the first quarter were impacted by strategic acquisitions and significant new targeted product development.
As with many companies, we experienced first quarter softness in North American sales due to weakened economic conditions, said X-Rite President and Chief Executive Officer Rich Cook. However, we made significant progress in moving X-Rite forward through additional initiatives that are capitalizing on our core technology and expertise in defining, measuring and managing color. Our continued development of light and shape-based measurement solutions are only beginning to serve high-potential markets like LEDs, telecom, micromachines, and biomedicine. Our growing offering of applications for managing light and shape allow customers to more accurately and efficiently test, measure, map and evaluate their optical or surface properties. Our short-term investment increase in product development and marketing for these emerging technologies, combined with our core color technology solutions, will help secure X-Rite’s future through growing revenue and profit.
The Company also highlighted the following recent initiatives:
Launch of New Dental Vision System: The Shade-Riteä Dental Vision System allows dentists and laboratories that serve them to quickly and accurately measure tooth shades for dental restoration. Until now, most color matching has been done by the human eye. Industry reception for the product, which improves the color accuracy and thus reduces cost, has been exceptional in North America and Europe. The Company anticipates revenue from this new product line by year’s end, and believes it may be the largest market it serves in three years.
Formation of Coherix(TM) Corporation: The market for measuring product components on a micro-scale is growing rapidly. This growth prompted the Company to give a new, patented shape measuring capability, utilizing tunable lasers, its own identity and to expand the level of investment. Early indications are that these solutions will be well received as the need for tools to measure, map and evaluate surfaces quickly grows across an industry spectrum including optical telecom components, micro-scale production, bioengineering and biomedicine.
Expansion into New Markets with Light Measurement: Labsphere, X-Rite’s light-measuring specialist, is growing in excess of 15 percent. The Company continues to broaden its influence in markets like optical telecom components including dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) fiber-optic applications, as well as the high-brightness LED markets. These areas are growing in excess of 50 percent, and the Company is positioned to take advantage of this growth.
We feel confident these initiatives will place X-Rite in a strong position as a leader in its chosen markets, Cook said. X-Rite’s reputation as a provider of quality products and solutions will support the Company’s success as it enters new markets. With a strong cash position and no debt, we remain confident and excited about X-Rite’s long-term prospects.
SOURCE: COMPANY PRESS RELEASE
