Adept reports FY 3Q09 results

May 12, 2009
MAY 12, 2009--Company executes restructuring, lowering operating expenses by an additional $1M per quarter.

MAY 12, 2009--Adept Technology (Pleasanton, CA, USA; www.adept.com), a provider of intelligent vision-guided robotic solutions, has announced financial results for its 2009 fiscal third quarter ended Mar. 28, 2009.

Revenues for 3Q09 decreased 52% to $7.7 million, compared to $16.1 million for the same period last year, and decreased 30% from $11.0 million in the second quarter. The decrease in revenue was driven by a decrease in orders across all industries and services business in January and February 2009, reflecting the global economic downturn affecting the company's customers. The company reported a GAAP net loss of $3.5 million, or $0.42 per share, which compares to net income of $983,000, or $0.12 per fully diluted share in 3Q08 and a net loss of $4.6 million, or $0.57 per share in 2Q09. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $2.6 million in 3Q09, compared with adjusted EBITDA of $1.6 million in 3Q08 and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $3.2 million in 2Q09.

Gross margin was 38.2% of revenue in 3Q09, compared with 46.3% of revenue in 3Q08 and 42.2% in 2Q09. Adept's gross margins were negatively impacted by lower volumes, which caused under-absorption of fixed manufacturing expenses, although the Quattro product margin remained steady throughout the quarter. Operating expenses for 3Q09 were $6.4 million, compared to operating expenses of $6.6 million in 3Q08 and $8.8 million in 2Q09.

During the quarter, Adept implemented new expense reductions expected to result in quarterly savings of approximately $1 million starting in 4Q09, which began on Mar. 29, 2009, with the full effect realized in 1Q10, which begins on Jul. 1, 2009. Included in the savings were additional voluntary executive salary reductions lowering the base salary of the company's CEO by 15% and of other executive management by 10%, which together with salary reductions effected in January 2009, reflects a total reduction of 35% and 20%, respectively, in addition to other employee salary reductions.

Adept's cash and short-term investment balance at Mar. 28, 2009 was $8.7 million, as compared to $11.0 million reported as of Dec. 27, 2008.

"We experienced a significant slowdown in January and February of this year as a result of the worldwide recession," says John Dulchinos, Adept's president and chief executive officer. "We saw numerous customers idle production lines and delay capital investments in the first two months of the year, which had a significant impact on our revenue. We are encouraged by an increase in activity since then, including a 29% increase in Quattro orders during the quarter, indicating that our business may be stabilizing."

Dulchinos continues, "Looking forward, we continue to focus on managing our resources and returning to cash-flow-positive operations. We took steps during the quarter to reduce our operating expenses by $1 million per quarter, which should be fully reflected in our first fiscal quarter of 2010. We have now secured a $5 million line of credit and our balance sheet remains strong. With our realigned cost structure we are confident that we have sufficient cash to weather this downturn. With our new product offerings and solid design wins in our key markets of packaging and solar, we are also confident we are well positioned to return to growth and profitability once the economy begins to recover."

Adept demonstrated its Quattro robot and its ACE PackXpert software at food industry and industrial manufacturing shows in France in March 2009. During the quarter, the company also demonstrated its new inline solar cell handling and inspection system, Eclipse, at the Photovoltaic Technology Show 2009 Europe and at the Photovoltaic Power Generation Expo 2009 in Tokyo. The company also signed two new distribution partners during the quarter, which are focused on the Japanese robotics market.

Posted by Vision Systems Design, www.vision-systems.com

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