Littelfuse Updates Outlook for Fourth Quarter and 2001
29 December 2000
Littelfuse Updates Outlook for Fourth Quarter and 2001
DES PLAINES, Ill.--Dec. 28, 2000--Littelfuse, Inc. today updated its outlook for the fourth quarter of 2000 and for 2001.Sales for the fourth quarter of 2000 are expected to be comparable to the prior year fourth quarter sales of $82 million. Earnings for the fourth quarter are expected to be in the range of $0.31 to $0.33 per share, compared to earnings of $0.35 per share for the fourth quarter of 1999. This will result in full year 2000 growth of approximately 25% in sales and 45% in earnings per share.
"Our fourth quarter sales are being affected by a slowing in the automotive market as well as moderating growth in the telecom and computer markets, exacerbated by inventory adjustments by both electronic distributors and contract manufacturers," said Howard B. Witt, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Despite the current slowdown and the likelihood that 2001 will start off slower than we previously expected, we are still confident that 2001 will be another record year for Littelfuse. With momentum building in the Suppression business and promising new products for both overcurrent and overvoltage protection, we believe our electronics business will grow 10% to 15% next year," added Witt.
"With the downturn in automotive and slowing growth in electronics, we are redoubling our cost reduction efforts and adjusting our cost structure accordingly," said Phil Franklin, Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer. "We are accelerating plans to move higher labor content products to our lower cost manufacturing sites and aggressively pursuing several large material cost reduction opportunities. In total for 2001, we expect cost reductions to exceed the $7 million annual level of the last two years," added Franklin.
For 2001, the company said it expects sales to increase 5% to 8% over the prior year and earnings to increase approximately 10% to 15%.
"We believe that after our electronics customers work down their inventories in early 2001, our electronics business will resume its upward trend for the remainder of the year," added Witt. "Our emphasis on the electronics market with the ability to offer both overcurrent and overvoltage circuit protection solutions to our worldwide customer base, as well as our capability to introduce innovative new products, will be important drivers for our continuing success in 2001 and beyond."