O.I. Corporation (O.I.), a US-based provider of products for detection, analysis, measurement and monitoring applications, has reported net revenues of $29 million for the year-end 2008, compared with the net revenues of $27.1 in the previous year-end. It has also reported a net income of $1 million, or $0.40 per share, for the year-end 2008, compared with the net income of $557,000, or $0.20 per share, in the previous year-end.
For the Fourth Quarter Ended December 31, 2008:
Revenue increased to $6,977,000, compared to $6,796,000 for the same period of the prior year. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2008 totaled $447,000, or $0.18 per diluted share, compared to net income of $216,000, or $0.08 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2007.
O.I.’s executive management team, J. Bruce Lancaster, chief executive officer and chief financial officer, and Don Segers, president and chief operating officer, commented:
We were pleased to end 2008 with much improved results compared to 2007. Our fourth quarter sales were slightly ahead of last year, despite the slowing economy. Operating earnings increased over $200,000 compared to 2007 because of improved margins and our efforts to reduce SG&A expense. We continued to invest in our R&D efforts and expended funds during the fourth quarter to purchase materials that will be used to complete prototype, beta units of our innovative new process Total Organic Carbon (‘TOC’) analyzer and miniaturized mass spectrometer.”
For the year, our overall sales increased approximately 7% in 2008 on the strength of a 19% increase in our laboratory instrument product lines. As we expected going into 2008, our MINICAMS sales were off substantially due to a lull in governmental projects that utilize our air-monitoring products. We expect improved MINICAMS sales in the future as contracts are awarded for planned government projects and additional chemical-agent disposal facilities. We succeeded in achieving our goal in 2008 of overcoming the expected decline in MINICAMS revenues through robust growth in laboratory product sales.”
Operating earnings of $1,460,000 in 2008 represented a substantial improvement from 2007. Our earnings growth was attributable to higher sales and reduced SG&A expenses as compared to 2007 when we incurred above normal legal and consulting expenses associated with our 2007 stock option investigation. However, our overall 2008 net earnings were negatively impacted by investment losses of approximately $700,000 during the year. We liquidated our investment portfolio during the third quarter due to continued instability in the financial markets. Despite the negative impact of these non-operating investment losses, our 2008 net income increased to $1,020,000, up $463,000 from 2007.”
While we are very pleased with our 2008 results in view of the slowing economy and turbulent financial markets, we expect the continuing economic slowdown to negatively impact our results in 2009. Our backlog of open orders declined significantly at the end of 2008 compared to historical levels and bookings levels in 2009 have been down substantially compared to 2008. We believe OI’s strong financial position should provide stability in the short-term. In addition, we have taken measures to reduce our payroll as well as SG&A expenses and will consider further cost control initiatives. On a longer term basis, we continue to believe that OI is well-positioned for growth with a broadened product portfolio through our recent strategic alliances and new products in the final stages of product development.