ANAHEIM, CA -- Multi-Fineline Electronix (M-Flex) saw second-quarter sales fall 11.5% from a year ago, and the fabricator will lay off 85 workers to shore up its balance sheet.

For the period ended March 31, net sales were $154.1 million as several programs ended, product mix changed and component shortages delayed shipments. Net income was $4.9 million, down 44% year-over-year.

The printed circuit board maker took a $1.9 million non-cash, pretax charge related to the planned retirement of certain assets at the company's Anaheim facility.

M-Flex will lay off 85 workers in its Anaheim plant and take additional charges totaling $1.4 million through the remainder of its fiscal 2010. The moves are expected to return annual pretax savings of $6.7 million.

"We believe the factors that impacted second quarter net sales are temporary and anticipate an increase in customer demand in the second half of fiscal 2010," said Reza Meshgin, chief executive.

Gross margin was 14.5%, up 30 basis points from the prior year and down 140 basis points sequentially. Cash flow from operations was $35.5 million, compared to $45.7 million in the prior year.

As of March 31, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $146.8 million.

M-Flex guided for fiscal third-quarter sales of $175 million to $195 million, and gross margin of 14 to 16%. "New programs scheduled to ramp in the second half are expected to significantly increase sales during the remainder of the year and give us confidence in our ability to achieve full year net sales growth in 2010," Meshgin said.  

The company continues with a planned capacity expansion that includes a new manufacturing facility in Chengdu, China.

• Prev
• Next