Abbey Healthcare Posts 66% Increase in Quarterly Profits in Contrast to 1991

Abbey Healthcare Group said Tuesday that its third-quarter profit was up 66%, while revenue was up 5% to $60 million.

The Costa Mesa company, which provides equipment and services to medical patients at home, said the dramatic increase in earnings is a result of new leadership and a yearlong emphasis on more-profitable products.

Abbey earned $2.9 million, or 35 cents a share, for the third quarter. That contrasted with a loss of $2.3 million for the same period a year earlier. Assuming the same debt structure as in 1991, earnings per share were 17 cents for the 1991 quarter. The company reorganized its debt in November.

Revenue for the latest three months was $60.1 million, up 5% from $57.2 million for the same period a year earlier.

“We are emphasizing the marketing of higher-margin products such as respiratory therapy, sleep-apnea therapy and other service-oriented therapies, rather than lower-margin products, such as rehabilitation equipment,” said Timothy M. Aitken, Abbey’s chairman, president and CEO.

In the first nine months of 1992, the company earned $7.3 million on revenue of $176.3 million. In the comparable period last year, Abbey lost $6.3 million on revenue of $168.2 million.

Aitken said the company’s future emphasis will be on sales growth. Abbey has added 15 to its marketing staff since he took over the presidency in January, 1991.

He noted that Abbey’s marketing department had signed 116 new national accounts in the past two months.

The company has 157 branches that provide home medical equipment and services in 36 states. It also provides therapy services by contract to more than 400 rehabilitation hospitals.