Nov. 3, 2017: IKONICS Releases Third Quarter Results

DULUTH, Minn., Nov. 03, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — IKONICS Corporation (NASDAQ:IKNX), a Duluth-based imaging technology company, reported 2017 third quarter results. Compared to the third quarter of 2016, sales declined by 14% to $3,984,000. The company posted a net loss of $111,000, or $0.06 per diluted share, for the 2017 third quarter compared to net income of $82,000, or $0.04 per diluted share, for the same period in 2016.  For the nine months ended, sales declined by 4%, while the company posted a net loss of $0.30 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $0.04 per diluted share for 2016.

Bill Ulland, IKONICS’ CEO, said, “The year-to-date sales decline was greatest in our traditional businesses of decorative sandblasting and screen print supplies, both foreign and domestic. Our aerospace business was also down primarily due to a primary customer’s second quarter production problem, which we believe has now been rectified.”

Ulland added, “Our plan has been to invest and grow new profitable lines of business to offset the anticipated slowing of our legacy businesses and we believe this is working, as evidenced by the following:

• Sales of DTX, our automotive business unit, are up by 131% in 2017 through the third quarter compared to the same period in 2016 with two new printers installed in Europe and others under negotiation. DTX is now profitable.
• AMS, our aerospace business, is back on track with our two largest customers forecasting a 150% increase in purchases for 2018.
• Our major new product development initiative for 2017 is a patent pending dye sublimation product (SubTHAT!) which we introduced at a large trade show last month. Initial market response has been very positive with 2017 sales of $258,000, all of which will be recognized during the fourth quarter of this year.

I anticipate that our legacy businesses will recover from the third quarter, but that the new businesses will continue to grow and become a more significant part our revenue.

In the meantime, we are taking strong measures to control costs. In addition to a wage freeze for most employees, we will be reducing trade shows, travel and consulting expenses.   I anticipate an annual reduction in these operating costs of approximately $230,000 during 2018 as compared to 2017.”