The pre-tax loss for the quarter also worsened year-on-year, with the company recording a loss of $US13.9m ($A15m), compared to a deficit of just $US8.4m for the three months to 30 September 2008.
EFI chief executive Guy Gecht (pictured) admitted that, despite the sequential improvement in sales, the company’s results are still “far from what they need to be” and vowed to take steps to expedite the restoration of shareholder value, “starting with profitability”. He said he expected the company to return to profitability within the current quarter.
Gecht was keen to stress the positives, however, claiming that the improvement on the second quarter was down to the launch of several new products, particularly in the inkjet segment, rather than “any significant economic recovery”.
“We believe that our industry is still impacted by weak demand for new equipment and the difficulties for customers to obtain financing,” he said.
“We view the meaningful sequential improvement in our business and the growth trajectory as validation of our belief that the most effective way to overcome the impact of the economy on our industry is by launching best in class products across our lines of business.”
Although revenues in the company’s inkjet division fell 27 per cent year-on-year to $US44.3m ($A47.6m), this represented a 22 per cent improvement on the previous quarter when the division achieved sales of just $36.5m.
EFI chief financial officer John Ritchie said: “In the quarter we introduced four new inkjet products, including our Vutek GS3200, the Jetrion 4830 and the Rastek H650 and T660. These products drove the 22 per cent increase sequentially that we had in the inkjet business.
“Year-over-year revenues were down 27 per cent primarily driven by lower printer volumes. The inkjet business also benefited from continued improvement in our UV ink volumes, [which] we believe are a key indicator of the demand our end-user customers are seeing.”
He added that the company expected sequential growth in its inkjet business to continue in the fourth quarter, as a result of the new product line-up recently introduced by the business.
The company also announced that its board had approved a $US70m share buy-back scheme – the remaining balance of a $US100m initiative.
Read the original article at www.printweek.com.
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