Coreco reports Q2 revenue growth
AUGUST 11--Coreco Inc. (St. Laurent, QC, Canada;www.coreco.com), a provider of computer-vision platforms for the OEM and end-user markets, reports that its revenues for the second quarter, ended June 30, 2003, showed increased momentum over the beginning of the year. Revenues of US$4,917,890 were comparable with US$4,912,528 in the second quarter of last year, but represented a sequential increase of 12.6% over the first quarter of this year. The gross margin rose to 59% from 55% last year, reflecting improvements in product costing and overhead expenses. Net earnings were US$283,752 versus US$275,728 last year, with earnings per share amounting to US$0.04 in both periods.
Revenues for the six-month period amounted to US$9,286,397, down from US$9,749,886 in the same period last year. Net earnings were US$207,748 or US$0.03 per share, versus US$439,301 or US$0.06 per share in the previous year. In both the first and second quarters of this year, Coreco continued to invest significantly in the development and marketing of end-user products. This investment represented a negative contribution of US$(0.14) per share for the six-month period without which earnings would have been US$0.17 per share.
During the second quarter, the company reduced long-term debt by US$750,000 and maintained inventory 7% below 2002 year-end levels. At June 30, 2003, the company held US$2,808,286 in cash offset by total long-term debt of US$687,500, representing a net cash position of US$2,120,786.
"This quarter ended on a strong note that carried over into the month of July," comments Keith Reuben, CEO of Coreco Inc. "Our bookings for the second quarter were the highest that they have been in the last two years, and we received 15 design-wins for new projects. Especially encouraging is the fact that we are beginning to see semiconductor and electronics customers return in all geographic markets after an absence of almost two years."
During this quarter, sales to Asia increased by 80% relative to the same period last year, and sales to Europe declined by 11%. While sales to the USA were down by 13% as a result of weakness in the first half of the quarter, the situation showed a marked improvement in the latter half. In the first six months of 2003, Asia, Europe, and the USA accounted for 23%, 30%, and 44% of total sales, respectively, with Canada contributing the remainder. By product category, sales of frame grabbers, embedded products and software were comparable to last year representing 56%, 36%, and 6% of the total. The company's end-user products contributed the remaining 2%.