1st-Quarter Earnings Rise 54% at Bergen Brunswig

Benefiting from a combination of new customers and products, Orange’s Bergen Brunswig Corp., a major distributor of pharmaceuticals and videocassettes, reported earnings of $12 million for the fiscal first quarter ended Nov. 30, up 54% from $7.8 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue was $968 million, up 17% from $828 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Emil P. Martini Jr., Bergen Brunswig’s chairman and chief executive officer, said the company profited from strong sales growth and consolidating and automating the company’s distribution facilities, as well as from a reduction in the corporate tax rate.

George E. Reinhardt Jr., Bergen Brunswig’s chief financial officer, said pharmaceutical manufacturers that distribute through Bergen Brunswig introduced some new, high-priced drugs during the first quarter.

Moreover, company officials noted a 36% increase in the sales and a more than doubling of net earnings posted in the first quarter by Commtron Corp., Bergen Brunswig’s majority-owned videocassette distributor in Des Moines, Iowa. A large share of that growth was attributed to the first-quarter release of two best-selling home videos, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “Cinderella.”

Bergen Brunswig also reported that its board of directors and controlling shareholders have agreed to revise a recapitalization plan that would transfer control of the company from the founding family to other shareholders upon their retirement. The plan had become the subject of a shareholder lawsuit.

Reinhardt said the company was not prepared to detail publicly the revised plan, which will be submitted to shareholders for approval at the company’s annual shareholders meeting, scheduled Jan. 31.