5.5% Sales Drop Reported by Fields Aircraft Spares

Fields Aircraft Spares reported net sales of $5.3 million for the first quarter ended April 2, compared with $5.6 million for the quarter a year earlier, a decrease of 5.5%.

Company officials said higher operating expenses and a temporary rescheduling of delivery dates by customers resulted in a net loss of $730,000 or 29 cents per share for the quarter, compared with net income of $110,000 or 5 cents per basic and 4 cents per diluted share the previous year.

“This quarter’s results were primarily driven by two factors, which we believe will work to our advantage in the not-too-distant future,” said Alan Fields, president and CEO. “Our operating expenses have increased due to the new 122,000-square-foot facility into which we have moved and the related infrastructure increases that were needed to support future growth through acquisitions.”

The second factor, he said, was increased demand for air travel, which resulted in airlines carrying record numbers of passengers as well as setting records for the percentages of seats filled.

“While this bodes well for our future growth, it has resulted in a number of rescheduling of deliveries by customers as they defer planned refurbishment of aircraft cabin interiors,” Fields said. “Based on discussions with our customers, we believe the reschedulings we have experienced in the first and second quarters of 1999 will result in a carry-over of those sales into the third and fourth quarters of the year.”

Fields Aircraft Spares manufactures and distributes aircraft cabin interior replacement products.