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Optical Cable Corporation Reports Fiscal Year and Fourth Quarter 2019 Financial Results
ROANOKE, Va., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Optical Cable Corporation (Nasdaq GM: OCC) ("OCC®" or the "Company") today announced financial results for fiscal
About this update from Optical Cable Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"ROANOKE, Va., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Optical Cable Corporation (Nasdaq GM: OCC) (\"OCC®\" or the \"Company\") today announced financial results for fiscal year 2019 and its fourth quarter ended October 31, 2019. \nFiscal Year 2019 Financial Results\nConsolidated net sales for fiscal year 2019 were $71.3 million compared to record net sales of $87.8 million for fiscal year 2018, a decrease of 18.8%. By comparison, the Company's consolidated net sales for fiscal year 2017 were $64.1 million.\nNet sales decreased in fiscal year 2019 as a result of a number of large orders from one customer in the wireless carrier market in fiscal year 2018 that did not recur at the same levels in fiscal year 2019. Net sales to this customer decreased $19.9 million in fiscal year 2019. \nOCC's consolidated net sales to all other customers during fiscal year 2019 increased 5.7% compared to the prior year (excluding the wireless carrier market from both years), with an increase in OCC's other specialty markets, partially offset by a decrease in its enterprise market.\nOCC reported gross profit of $18.3 million in fiscal year 2019 compared to gross profit of $27.9 million in fiscal year 2018, a decrease of 34.3%. Gross profit margin, or gross profit as a percentage of net sales, was 25.7% in fiscal year 2019 compared to 31.7% for fiscal year 2018. \nDuring fiscal year 2019, the Company experienced significant reduction in gross profit margins, primarily as a result of unintended throughput constraints and inefficiencies experienced in the Roanoke production facility impacting gross profits—particularly in the first quarter of the year. These throughput constraints and inefficiencies resulted from the expansion, training, and restructuring of the Company's manufacturing workforce and from process changes during fiscal year 2018—initiatives intended to ultimately increase throughput and efficiency in order to meet increased product demand over the short- and long-term. \nOCC focused on cost control and correcting the impact of these unintended throughput constraints and inefficiencies during fiscal year 2019—achieving improvements after the first quarter of fiscal year 2019. OCC's efforts to control costs and correct unintended inefficiencies are ongoing, and the Company believes the benefits of some of the cost reductions and changes that have be...