Music Firm Upsilon Turns Up the Volume

Santa apparently unloaded some extra goodies on Upsilon Corp., the Irvine company that was the subject of a four-part series in The Times during the holiday season.

Sales in the three months ended Dec. 31--the company’s fiscal second quarter--surged 21% to $2.37 million from $1.96 million in the same year-earlier period.

The privately held company, which owns three small music stores and a wholesale CD distribution business, doesn’t disclose profits. But President Jeff Walker said net income grew 8% from a year earlier. The quarter is the company’s most important for the year, generating about 50% of its annual profit.

The October-December period put the company on a pace to do about $10 million in sales in the 12 months ending in June, which would be a 47% increase from a year ago. The company, which started eight years ago with one CD Listening Bar, is reinvesting virtually all of its profits to get even bigger.

In January, Walker and partner David Hurwitz added four new sales staffers, tripling the size of a sales force that services about 600 independent music stores nationwide. The duo also are eyeing the purchase of a couple of stores.

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Russ Stanton covers retail businesses and restaurants for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5609 and at russ.stanton@latimes.com