Increased revenues help
Cyanotech narrow loss
Cyanotech Corp. said today it narrowed its loss in the 2003 fiscal fourth quarter and posted an 18 percent jump in revenues as it moved closer to regaining profitability.
The producer of microalgae nutritional products Spirulina and BioAstin and feed product NatuRose hasn't had a profitable quarter since the three-month period ending June 1997.
However, a consecutive losing streak that has now reached 23 quarters came closer to ending in the period concluding March 31 as the company pared its loss to $270,000, or a loss of 1 cent a share, from a loss of $730,000, or 4 cents a share, from the year-earlier quarter.
Excluding a $100,000 write-off for its discontinued infomercial advertising campaign and an $80,000 write-down related to a warehouse capital expenditure project, Cyanotech's net loss would have been $90,000.
Revenue in the quarter increased to $2.4 million from $2.1 million a year ago.
"The effective net loss of $90,000 for the fourth quarter indicates significant progress toward our goal of returning Cyanotech to profitability," said Gerald Cysewski, Cyanotech chairman. "Additionally, we are continuing our cost-containment program while improving production efficiency."
Cyanotech's gross profit margin, which is the percentage of sales left after subtracting production costs, improved to 34 percent in the quarter from 17 percent a year ago.
For the fiscal year, Cyanotech had a loss of $1.8 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.6 million, or 15 cents a share, for the previous year. Revenue increased 9 percent to $9 million from $8.2 million.