Relm Wireless has rosy third quarter results
Relm Wireless, West Melbourne, FL, made a profit of $213,000 during its third quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to a net loss of $330,000 for the comparable period last year. Relm sells two-way FM business band radios and public safety mobile and portable radios, repeaters and accessories, base station components and subsystems with the brand names of RELM Communications, Uniden PRC and BK Radio.
Revenue for the period increased 4.4% from $6 million to $6.2 million. Most of the increase is attributed to strong demand for BK Radio products from federal government and public safety users. Relm officials said the company also continues to “make progress in the business and industrial sector by successfully marketing Uniden-branded products and enhanced subaudible signaling systems” and cited product sales to new customers in Canada and Mexico.
Relm’s gross profit margin is up: 31% for this year’s third quarter compared to 28.1% last year, because of reduced manufacturing expenses and higher product volume.
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Relm reported net income of $71,000. It reported a net loss of $1.6 million during the first nine months of 2000, excluding a one-time gain of $1.2 million on the sale of its West Melbourne facility. Including this gain, Relm reported a net loss of $481,000 for the first nine months of 2000.
Revenue for the first nine months of 2001 rose 9% to $17.1 million compared to $15.7 million for the same period last year. LMR product revenue for the first nine months of 2000 totaled $17.1 million, a 13.2% increase from $15.1 million for the same period last year. Thom Morrow, Relm’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, said the company’s revenue target for the year is $22 million, with sales of Uniden PRC products playing a big part.
David Storey, Relm’s president, said the that the company is entering the fourth quarter with a “very nice” backlog of orders.
He also commented on the five-year OEM agreement that Relm signed in September with Shenzhen HYT Science & Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
“We have exclusivity for North, South and Central America. Shenzhen HYT is an interesting, small, private corporation. Their stated goal is to introduce a new product every six months.
“What we are going to do together with them is to bring our expertise in the Americas and their added features, functions and software to the RELM Communications products for a rebirth of the RELM name. Shenzhen HYT is a source of portables, but we also want to look at them for other products,” Storey said.
Story had traveled to Shenzhen in mid-September to inspect the factory and negotiate the agreement. He said that he saw a “quality-conscious organization that follows the same precepts we have tried to infuse in our company.”
Storey commented that Relm has products for the VHF and UHF bands, and added: “We want to look at other products they offer and at improving those products to sell into our markets for business and industrial use. It is our goal to grow substantially in the business and industrial radio communications segment. We are largely ‘government and public safety’ today.”
He said part of Relm’s strategy is to partner with organizations such as Shenzhen HYT and to evolve the relationships into more than OEM agreements as Relm’s business grows larger.
