Micronetics’ Loss for Year Is $44.5-Million : First Annual Deficit for High-Technology Firm

National Micronetics on Friday reported its first-ever annual loss--$44.5 million for the year ended June 30, or 48% more than the $30-million loss predicted by company officials just two months ago.

The loss contrasted with net earnings of $4.4 million a year ago.

Revenue fell 24% to $48.4 million from the previous year’s sales.

National Micronetics linked $27 million of that loss, including a $19.5-million charge, to the June 28 closing of PolyDisc Systems, a money-losing subsidiary based in Torrance that made coated disks for computer disk drives.

The company said it also was hurt by the closing of an unprofitable floppy disk recording-head assembly operation in Singapore.

‘Clean Things Out’

The remaining losses were associated with “restructuring and repositioning the company,” according to Chairman Ned Buoymaster.

“What we tried to do was . . . clean things out so we could . . . be profitable at the lowest possible sales level” he said.

“Given the uncertainty in the disk-drive business and the computer business in general, we thought it best to be conservative and get down to a solid (business) core,” Buoymaster said.

At the start of the fiscal year, National Micronetics was structured to break even at $70 million in sales, Buoymaster said.

The cutback in assets and inventory will help the company generate profits on only $45 million in annual sales, he said.

National Micronetics’ sales fell 32% to $11.6 million for the fourth quarter ended June 30, compared to the same quarter a year ago.

The company reported a net loss of $34.1 million for the quarter, compared to a profit of $1.7 million a year earlier.