Hsinchu, Taiwan – Accton Technology Corporation (Accton hereinafter), a leading outsource partner of advanced communication products, today announced its 2004 financial report. Net sales for 2004 were NT$18,473 million. Gross margin and operating income were NT$2,507 million and NT$412 million, respectively. Non-operation loss was NT$ 956 million and net loss before tax was NT$544 million.
Accton pointed out that in Q4 last year, owing to the NT dollars quickly appreciated, Accton consequently lost NT$11 million in exchange and the non-operation loss was extended, which therefore resulted in the deficit last year. However, with regard to the gross margin, as the adjustment and rearrangement on product portfolio, the gross margin of Enterprise network products has increased from 14.5% to 20%, and that of SMB relating products from 17.9% to 20.8%. Moreover, the total inventory value declined from NT$ 2.7 billion to NT$ 1.7 billion and the account receivable turnover day also declined from 92 days to 80 days, mainly due to the company’s proactive improvement on operation processes and efficiency as well as stronger control on inventory and AR.
Accton continues to service a complete customer profile and has been strengthening these partnerships for years. Accton has gradually expanded its technology development focus from switches to high-end integrated wired and wireless technology with high add-on value such as 10G switching, wireless broadband and SAN. These new solutions will be released from Q2 2005. In the broadband communication market, simple router functions will be gradually replaced by integrated multiple services such as the integrated services of video and voice. Accton has been devoted on developing products to serve this high-end market segment based on router, voice and video technology and has received high recognition from worldwide leading players. In the future, in addition to expanding the business scale within existing customers, opening new markets and increasing its customer base and alliances for new product series and technology will also be the marketing focus in the coming months.
Additionally, the newly-established group—Edge-Core Integrated Services, will keep operating with the unique theme of “innovation” in order to cerebrate new partnership in such socially multi-cultural and economically fast-changing world. Currently, Edge-Core has won resonant success in many burgeoning countries, like Mainland China, South America, and Eastern Europe. In the future, Edge-Core will cooperate with some world’s leading telecommunication companies; with the firm regional partners, Edge-Core will take root in every region step by step and will be a remarkably shining star in the market.
Accto’s 2004 sales revenue breakdown by product: 56% of revenue was contributed by Ethernet switches, 1% by hubs and adapter cards, 22% by wireless products, 15% by gateway and broadband and 6% for other products. Revenue on a regional basis was 43% from North America, 31% from Asia Pacific and Taiwan, and 26% from Europe.
