Wyle Laboratories’ Profit Up Sharply

Wyle Laboratories, an El Segundo-based distributor of semiconductors, said Tuesday that its profit and sales rose in the second quarter.

Profit for the quarter was $749,000, a nearly tenfold increase from net income of $79,000 in the comparable period a year ago. It was the fourth consecutive quarterly increase in income from continuing operations.

Sales for the three months ended July 31 rose 16% to $75.1 million.

The company has managed to bob back up from the slump affecting the entire semiconductor industry by concentrating on high-growth segments of the industry, Wyle Labs Chairman Stanley A. Wainer said.

That, he said, has meant selling in the Western regions and emphasizing application-specific, or custom-designed, integrated circuits. Wainer said such strategies have also netted the company a higher market share.

Wainer cited the results of the company’s chip-selling division, in which operating income was $1.4 million in the second quarter, compared to a loss of $377,000 a year ago.

The improvement came on a 19% increase in sales.

However, the company cautioned that chip customers are working down inventories but still not placing new orders.

“The continued soft demand for (electronics products), particularly in the computer segment, has cause a delay in orders for semiconductors,” Wainer said in a statement, adding that a true resurgence in the semiconductor industry is dependent on a pickup in those orders.

For the first half, profit ballooned to $2.3 million from $584,000 in the first six months of 1985.

The increase was largely attributable to an $895,000 gain in the first quarter on the sale of land. First-half revenue was $146.7 million, a 10% increase.