Spire Corporation (Nasdaq: SPIR), a global solar company providing turnkey factories and capital equipment to manufacture photovoltaic modules, reported record revenues of $38.4 million for the year ending December 31, 2007, a 91% increase from $20.1 million in 2006.
In addition, the company recorded a $2.7 million gain from the sale of limited rights to utilize its trademark, an income tax benefit of $877,000, and an extraordinary gain of $1.3 million, net of tax, on its equity investment in its joint venture, Gloria Spire Solar, LLC. Net loss after the gain for 2007 was $1.7 million, or $0.20 per share, compared with net loss of $8.1 million, or $1.03 per share, for 2006.
Spire’s revenues for 4Q07 were $13 million, an increase of 157% from $5.1 million in 4Q06, and a record for the company. Net loss for the quarter was $830,000, or $0.10 per share, compared to a net loss of $2.1 million or $0.26 per share for the fourth quarter of 2006. At year end, Spire had $2.4 million in unrestricted cash and short-term investments.
Roger G. Little, Chairman and CEO, said, "This is our fourth consecutive quarter of record revenue, capping off a year where the company nearly doubled its revenues. Our rapid growth was led by a 375% increase in turnkey factory and solar equipment revenues and a 61% increase in our Spire Semiconductor revenues in year-over-year comparisons. We also improved our manufacturing efficiency and achieved impressive margin growth. Gross margin for the company improved in 2007 compared with 2006. The combination of higher sales and improved efficiencies resulted in a small operational profit in the fourth quarter for Spire Solar."
"The customer base for our solar equipment has expanded considerably, including new module line contracts with customers in Spain, Russia, Portugal, the Caribbean, and Korea," continued Mr. Little. "Approximately two-thirds of our solar business in 2007 was international. The beneficial currency exchange rates are helping to boost this segment of our sales and are significantly improving our competitive position with international customers. We have made significant strategic investments in the business to meet the growing worldwide demand for equipment. We added both internal and external sales personnel to increase our global reach, and we have added more than 75 employees focused on solar manufacturing. In the fourth quarter, we added 53,000 square feet of manufacturing space for our solar equipment manufacturing operations."
"As part of our long-term growth strategy, we have renamed Bandwidth Semiconductor, our subsidiary Spire Semiconductor, and focused the business towards opportunities in the solar market. Our cell line process technology originated from this operation, and we have held a pioneering position in the gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cell field. We are currently customizing GaAs concentrator cells for a number of customers. These activities were made possible by the successful commissioning of two large-scale, metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactors in 2007, providing adequate capacity for production quantities of cells. Overall, Spire Semiconductor achieved a 61% increase in revenue in 2007 compared with 2006. A shift from development work towards volume production services also improved Spire Semiconductor’s margins, especially during the fourth quarter."
"Spire Biomedical’s revenues also increased in 2007, driven by gains in orthopedic services and hemodialysis catheter sales, which offset a reduction in contract research and development," said Mr. Little. "Catheter sales increased by 20% due to market penetration with the Company’s DecathlonTM Gold product, the industry’s first End-PointTM bonded, heparin-coated hemodialysis catheter. In 2007, Spire invested in a product line expansion for a series of heparin-coated catheters to address growth opportunities in this market. These investments resulted in lower gross margins for this business, but overall profitability of Spire Biomedical was essentially unchanged in 2007 compared with 2006."
"I am very pleased with the progress we have made in 2007," concluded Mr. Little. "In addition to the significant sales growth, we have made critical investments in our infrastructure, including new personnel, facility expansion and improvement, upgraded IT systems, and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts. We are in an excellent position to capitalize on the rapid growth in the global solar market."
About Spire Corporation
Spire Corporation is a global solar company providing turnkey production lines and capital equipment to manufacture photovoltaic modules. Spire Semiconductor provides processing technology for Spire’s silicon solar cell manufacturing lines and produces and sells custom gallium arsenide cells for solar concentrator systems. Spire Biomedical utilizes processing equipment common to solar cell manufacturing and is a leader in hemodialysis catheters and implantable device processing services.
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