Coreco reports third-quarter results

OCTOBER 24--Coreco (Montreal, Canada;www.imaging.com) has reported revenues of US$6 million for the third quarter, compared with US$7.2 million in the same quarter of 2000. Net earnings from operations amounted to US$505,046 (US$0.07/share) versus US$689,442 (US$0.09/share) last year. After accounting for acquisition-related charges, the company reported a loss of US$915,201 (US$0.13/share), compared with a loss of US$803,921 (US$0.11/share) a year earlier.

"Our revenues in the third quarter were adversely affected by the general slowdown in the world economy, which is being particularly felt by the semiconductor industry," commented CEO Keith Reuben. "However, given the diversified markets that we address, we are experiencing less of an impact than most other competitors in our industry."

To offset lower demand, Coreco has implemented a strict cost-control program. As a result, on a year-over-year basis, selling and marketing expenses have decreased by 18% and general and administrative expenses by 14% during the last quarter. R&D expenditures continue to be important, representing 17.8% of sales. This program reflects the company's ongoing strategy to maintain sound financial management while focusing on the research and development of value-added products to serve the evolving needs of the machine-vision market. In this quarter, new products accounted for 53% of all sales, compared with 44% in the last quarter.