Wellington Drive lifts 3rd-qtr sales 25%, affirms annual guidance

Thursday 27th October 2016

Wellington Drive Technologies, which makes energy efficient motors for commercial refrigerators, lifted third-quarter revenue 25 percent and is still targeting positive earnings for the year.

Revenue rose to $6.3 million in the three months ended Sept. 30 from $5.1 million a year earlier, the Auckland-based company said in a statement. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was a loss of $427,000 in the quarter, smaller than the $607,000 ebitda loss reported a year earlier, and Wellington Drive maintained guidance that it would generate a "modest ebitda profit" on an annual basis.

"We continue to build growth momentum with our new ECR2 and SCS products as we enter Q4 and are also seeing an uptick in demand for our ECR1 motor product," chief executive Greg Allen said. "We expect a strong Q4, closer to revenue levels earlier in the year, and are targeting achievement of a modest ebitda profit for the full year."

Wellington Drive has focused on Latin America to make the company profitable after years of underperformance, convincing cornerstone shareholder SuperLive, the NZX-owned fund manager, to back a series of capital raisings.

The company today said it has started seeing the benefits of cutting costs in its supply chain with increased volumes, though warned future reductions will have less measurable impact.

Allen said the company will update 2017 guidance when demand for the new season is clearer, and that Wellington Drive is focused on "putting in place additional supply chain capacity and customer field support to meet its 2017 requirements."

Wellington Drive's year-to-date sales rose 34 percent to $25 million at a gross margin of 23.6 percent, widening from 21.9 percent a year earlier. Its year-to-date adjusted ebitda loss was $145,000, narrowing from an ebitda loss of $1.3 million.

The shares last traded at 14.5 cents, and have jumped 81 percent this year.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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