Highlights for the Quarter:
Gross margin: 36.1%, up from 33.6% in 2008
Operating costs: CAD5.3 million, up from CAD5.0 in 2008
Adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA of CAD0.3 million, down from CAD0.7 million in 2008
Cash flow from operations: CAD1.3 million, up from CAD0.1 million in 2008
Cash balance: CAD9.2 million as at March 31, 2009, up from CAD7.9 million in 2008
Nil debt: Continued debt-free operation
Sales:
The decline in sales is primarily due to lower tactical sales during this period, caused by the closure and sale of Carmanah’s lower margin distribution business/product lines.
Despite challenging global economic conditions, Carmanah’s strategic sales during first quarter of 2009 were at around the same levels during this period than during first quarter of 2008, underscoring the resilient nature of Carmanah’s strategic markets, and the ongoing demand for renewal energy technologies.
Progress During the Quarter (including subsequent events):
During this quarter, Carmanah made continued progress in refining and accelerating the company’s focus on its strategic direction.
Carmanah divested of its road-signs inventory and related obligations, signing a definitive agreement with a distributor to dispose its inventories and other assets of its illuminated road-signs business. A gain of CAD0.8 million was recognized on this sale. (February 10, 2009).
Carmanah partnered with Shine Micro to combine solar-powered marine lanterns with AIS technology, providing the means to add an automatic identification system (AIS) capability to its line of stand-alone solar-powered LED (light emitting diode) marine lanterns. (Widely used by ships and vessel traffic services (VTS) to identify and locate vessels, AIS technology enables ships to automatically exchange a range of navigational data including position, course, speed and proximity to other nearby ships, VTS stations, and AIS-equipped navigational buoys.) (February 11, 2009).
Carmanah introduced solar LED lighting for streets and parking lots with the launch of its most powerful solar-powered LED area light to date: the EverGEN 1500 lighting system. Providing up to 6,800 lumens of delivered light output, the powerful EverGEN 1500 combines the performance of an AC-powered area light with the versatility of an off-grid solar-powered lighting system, offering unparalleled performance for a solar-powered LED light of its size (March 4, 2009).
Other highlights during first quarter of 2009 included:
Carmanah introduced a compact solar-charging kit for RVs and boats: the Go Power!™ GP-RV-95 solar-charging kit. The GP-RV-95 kit delivers 95 watts (5.5 amps) of electricity from a compact solar module, making it ideal for RVs, boats and other mobile applications. (March 2, 2009).
Carmanah announced the Toronto Parking Authority is installing a Carmanah solar-powered grid-tie system valued at around CAD248,000 to help power the TPA facility, reduce the facility’s reliance on the Toronto Hydro distribution system, and help to control energy expenses (March 12, 2009).