ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 13, 1996 TAG: 9608130055
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Innotech Inc., Roanoke-based manufacturer of machines to make eyeglass lenses, on Monday reported larger quarterly losses despite a 39 percent increase in sales, saying it would be late next year before the company posts a profit.
The company said its second-quarter losses were expected and reported that net sales in the second quarter grew to a record $2.57 million.
Innotech, which operates plants on Airport Road in Roanoke and in Petersburg, develops and manufactures desktop eyeglass-lens fabricating systems and distributes supplies for those systems.
The systems enable eyeglass shops to make both single-vision and multifocal plastic lenses in their offices rather than sending orders to laboratories.
Innotech said its net loss for the quarter ended June 30 was $2.59 million, equal to 33 cents per share of common stock, compared with a second-quarter 1995 loss of $1.97 million, or 31 cents per share.
The company offered stock to the public for the first time in March, so the per-share earnings figures for last year are hypothetical.
For the first half of 1996, Innotech reported a net loss of $5.44 million, or 84 cents per share, compared with a loss of $4.31 million, or a pro forma 69 cents per share, for last year's first half.
"Results for the second quarter and second half, in line with our expectations, show that our business strategy is working," Innotech Chairman and CEO Ronald Blum said in a statement.
The company's goal is to achieve profitability by the end of 1997, Blum said. Company officials did not return calls seeking further comment.
While the company's overall net sales were up 39 percent for the quarter, sales of the supplies that are used in the company's Excalibur lens-fabrication machines were up 102 percent to $1.38 million.
The big jump in sales of supplies reflects an increase in the number of the lens fabricating machines sold by the company and the introduction of new and higher-priced lens products, Blum said.
Net sales of the company's Excalibur machines increased by 2 percent to $1.2 million during the quarter.
However, unit sales of the machines were up 27 percent during the quarter, the company said, as the selling price of the machines was reduced in order to increase market penetration and sales of supplies to operate them.
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