First Quarter Highlights:
– Achieved record quarterly product revenues of $2.8 million
– Doubled installed manufacturing capacity to six megawatts
Evergreen Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESLR), a developer, marketer, and manufacturer of photovoltaic (solar power) products for the worldwide market, announced results for the first quarter 2004.
Commented Richard M. Feldt, President and Chief Executive Officer, "We had record product revenues and made good progress on our capacity expansion. The Marlboro factory achieved a 4.5 MW per year run rate by the end of March, up from 3 MW at the end of 2003. We are on target to quadruple our manufacturing capacity by year-end, significantly increase revenues and substantially improve product gross margins."
For the three months ended March 31, 2004, product revenues were $2.8 million, an increase of $1.7 million, or 165%, from $1.1 million for the same period in 2003. The increase in product revenues was primarily the result of increased manufacturing capacity associated with capacity expansion, and increased selling activities.
Research revenues for the first quarter were $262,000, a decrease of $119,000 from $381,000 for the same period in 2003. Product gross margin for the quarter ended March 31, 2004 was -61%, an improvement from -150% for the same period in 2003. This improvement in gross margin was due to increased sales, which reduced per unit overhead costs, and also due to lowered variable manufacturing costs resulting from improvements in yield and efficiency.
Operating loss for the first quarter was $4.0 million, an increase of $788,000 as compared to $3.2 million for the first quarter of 2003. Net loss attributable to common stockholders for the first quarter was $4.6 million, or $0.30 per share, which includes non-cash dividends earned by the Series A Convertible Preferred stockholders of $665,000. At March 31, 2004, cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaled $14.7 million, compared to $20.3 million at December 31, 2003.
"The demand for our products continues to outpace our manufacturing capacity," continued Feldt. "Therefore, the key to increasing revenues and improving margins is our Line 2 capacity expansion. The entire Evergreen team has been focused on this effort and our installed capacity has doubled to 6 MW. We expect to see revenue growth next quarter as we ramp Line 2 and increase production. We anticipate incurring additional Line 2 start-up costs in the second quarter and thus do not expect to see significant margin improvement until the third and fourth quarters."
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