CPAC registers record earnings

Mary Morgan//June 9, 1995//

Listen to this article

The Fuller Brush Co. acquisition pumped up yearly numbers at CPAC Inc., which this week announced record sales and earnings for the ninth straight year.
Before CPAC made the $15.6 million purchase in October, Fuller Brush was a “tremendous losing operation,” said Thomas Weldgen, chief financial officer. After changes in pricing and production, Fuller Brush has marked a profit in each of the months since CPAC took control, he said.
A licensing agreement for Stanley Home Products–another piece of CPAC’s move into specialty chemicals– did not affect fiscal 1995 figures, Weldgen said. CPAC assumed profit-and-loss responsibility for the line of home-care and personal-care products on April 1.
Based on reports that Fuller Brush brings in $24 million annually, the division likely added $12 million in sales for CPAC last year, said Roger Favale, president of Infonalysis Inc., a New York City firm that researches companies with small market capitalizations.
Revenues for the fourth quarter ended March 31 jumped 55 percent to $18.3 million, up from $11.8 million last year.
Net income climbed 30 percent to $820,000 from $629,000 last year. Earnings per share, after adjusting for a 5-for-4 stock split in January, rose from 16 cents a share to 18 cents a share in the fourth quarter.
For the year, revenues hit $58.6 million, shooting up 34 percent from $43.8 million last year.
The Leicester firm showed a 21 percent gain in net income, with $3.19 million in earnings compared with $2.63 million for fiscal 1994. Adjusted earnings per share bumped up 13 percent to 76 cents a share, up from 67 cents a share last year.
Though sales were driven by Fuller Brush, other divisions showed growth rates of roughly 4 percent, Weldgen said. International sales also rose slightly, marking the firm’s best-yet efforts in that area, he added.
Favale of Infonalysis praised CPAC’s move to diversify beyond the competitive imaging industry, which has been growing too slowly. CPAC makes processing chemicals and pollution-control equipment for photographic processing.
CPAC’s stock, which trades on the NASDAQ exchange, was trading Wednesday at $11.25.