Earnings : Printronix Inc.

Despite overall improvement in sales, Printronix Inc. posted lower third-quarter earnings, citing continued losses at a recently acquired subsidiary.

For the three-month period ended Dec 28, the Irvine manufacturer of computer printers posted earnings of $1.29 million, down 30% from the third quarter last year when earnings were $1.84 million.

Revenues for the quarter were $40 million, up 27% room with a year ago, when third-quarter revenues were $31.4 million.

For the nine-month period, Printronix earned $6.22 million, up 23% form the $5 million the company made during the like period last year. Revenues during the first three quarters were $111.4 million, up 37% from $81.1 million in the year-ago period.

Jerry F. Kelley, Printronix’s senior vice president and chief financial officar, blamed the reduced earnings primarily on losses at the company’s Camarillo-based Anadex Inc. subsidiary. “The loss at Anadex was expected,” Kelley said. “They were losing money when we bought them.”

Since then, Printronix has initiated several cost-cutting measures at the company, which makes dot matrix printers, and hopes to bring the subsidiary to the break-even point during the current quarter, and profitable by the end of the next quarter, he said.

Another factor behind the lower earnings, Kelley said, was soft demand for the line printers which make up the mainstay of Printronix’s product line.