Adept sees decline in revenue for the fiscal 2009 second quarter

Adept Technology, Inc. has announced its financial results for the fiscal 2009 second quarter, ending December 27, 2008. Revenues were down to US$11 million, compared to US$14.4 million in the same period last year and US$14.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2009.

This decrease is due to a decline in orders and service business, which can be attributed to the current weakening economic climate as well as a decline in capital spending relating to Adept’s industrial and automotive business in Germany. The company suffered a GAAP net lost of US$4.6 million, including restructuring costs of US$1.9 million, US$1.4 million of which came as the result of the write down of service inventory related to the discontinuation of remanufactured robots. This compares to a net income of US$1.5 million and a net loss of US$1.6 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2009.

Adept’s gross margin also decreased to 42.2% of revenue in the second quarter of fiscal 2009 from 50.4% of revenue in the same period last year and 46.2% in the first quarter of fiscal 2009. The company’s gross margin in the second quarter of 2009 suffered due to the weakening of the Euro and strengthening of the Yen compared to the dollar, in addition to a decline in their higher margin service business.

At December 27, 2008, Adept’s cash and short-term investment balance was US$11.0 million, compared to US$12.3 million at September 27, 2009 and US$15.2 million at June 30, 2008.

"During the quarter we experienced softness due to macroeconomic effects on our customers," commented John Dulchinos, Adept's president and CEO. "In particular, we saw a slow down in capital spending from our industrial business coming out of Germany, mainly attributable to their automotive industry, while our U.S. business was steady due to our focus on the packaged goods vertical. In packaging, we continue to gain traction with our Quattro robot and our new packaging management software, ACE PackXpert and in solar, we are seeing good customer interest in our recently announced inspection technology, Eclipse."