Pioneer-Standard Earnings Decline

Pioneer-Standard Electronics

The results included $12.4 million in special charges that the company previously announced. The charges consisted of a $3.8 million restructuring charge for facility and severance costs and an $8.6 million charge for inventory.

Without the charges, the Cleveland-based distributor earned $1.1 million, or 4 cents per share, compared with precharge earnings of $8.7 million, or 28 cents per share, for the year-ago quarter. Thomson Financial/First Call expected earnings of 2 cents per share, excluding special charges.

The distributor reported sales of $505.4 million, a 30 percent decline from $724.8 million for the fourth quarter last year.

"We have been very focused on effectively managing our business in an extremely difficult environment," said Arthur Rhein, Pioneer-Standard's president and CEO, in a statement. "Throughout fiscal 2002 we were very successful in achieving our goals for reducing expenses and effectively managing working capital without disrupting our service levels to customers, our share of the suppliers we represent or the development of new distribution technology solutions."

For fiscal 2002, Pioneer-Standard reported a loss of $7 million, or 26 cents per share, compared with earnings in fiscal 2001 of $34.6 million, or $1.11 diluted earnings per share, including special charges.

Without the charges, the distributor reported break-even results for fiscal 2002, compared with $43.2 million in earnings, or $1.34 per diluted share, for last year.

Revenue in fiscal 2002 was $2.3 billion, a 20 percent decrease from sales of $2.9 billion reported in fiscal 2001. More than 75 percent of the decline was attributable to the Industrial Electronics Division as a result of the downturn in the electronic components market, according to the company.

"Fiscal 2003 is shaping up to be another challenging year due to the protracted downturn in electronic markets, the uncertainty of the U.S. economy and its impact on information technology spending," Rhein said.

The distributor expects first-quarter revenue to fall 15 percent to 20 percent from the year-ago quarter and predicts a loss of between 2 cents and 7 cents per share. Thomson Financial/First Call had projected earnings of 6 cents per share for the first quarter.

Shares of Pioneer-Standard were trading at $12.05, down $2.05, or 15 percent, in morning trading Tuesday.