CalComp Reports ’91 Sales Climb 25% to $525 Million : * Electronics: Success of new products and an acquisition aided the computer graphics subsidiary of Lockheed Corp. Sales the prior year were $420 million.

Spurred by an acquisition and the success of several new products, CalComp Inc., the computer graphics subsidiary of Lockheed Corp., reported its sales increased 25% to nearly $525 million in 1991.

“We recognized that the computer graphics industry has broadened beyond (traditional engineering markets) and is the area of growth for the future,” said CalComp President William P. Conlin. “To grow that much despite the slow computer market is gratifying.”

CalComp manufactures computer plotters, printers and digitizers used to produce computer-generated graphics images for markets such as engineering, architecture and color printing.

The 1991 sales compared to $420 million in sales in 1990. CalComp, as a subsidiary of the $9.8-billion Lockheed aerospace firm based in Calabasas, does not disclose net income figures or precise sales. Conlin said that profitability improved during the second half of 1991 because of healthy sales of new products.

Sales got a boost as a result of CalComp’s acquisition last May of Access Graphics Technology of Boulder, Colo., for an undisclosed price. Conlin said Access Graphics, a distributor of computer graphics products and Sun Microsystems Inc. computers, added more than $80 million to sales in 1991.

International sales accounted for half the company’s revenue in 1991. During the year, CalComp established subsidiaries in Austria, China, Taiwan and Australia. Most of CalComp’s overseas revenue comes from a joint venture with Nippon Steel Ltd., which sells color plotters that are used by engineers and architects to draw blueprints or precise maps.

During the current year, Conlin said, he expects sales to top $600 million. Much of the growth would come from new product lines that reach beyond CalComp’s traditional engineering graphics market, he said.

For instance, Conlin plans to manufacture the styluses and computer screens for so-called pen-based computers, which use an electronic pen to input data directly onto a computer screen instead of using a mouse or traditional keyboard. Conlin said about 30 to 40 manufacturers are considering using CalComp components in their designs for pen-based computers, due to ship mainly in 1993.

CalComp is also marketing products for graphic artists, such as “electronic paintbrushes” that allow artists to draw on a computer screen.

Conlin said that a strategic relationship venture with personal computer maker AST Research Inc. in Irvine did not contribute significantly to CalComp’s sales. In August, the two companies announced a strategic relationship in which CalComp co-designed AST’s Medallion line of computers for engineers.

Despite the sales growth, Conlin said the work force did not grow. The company has about 1,100 employees in Anaheim out of 2,800 worldwide.