Steep declines in sales of its reference and Rolodex electronics lines resulted in a 25.6% drop in sales at Franklin Electronic Publishers, to $15.7 million, for the second quarter ended September 30. Net income fell to $747,000 from $2.6 million in last year's comparable quarter.
Franklin said the declines reflect a change in the company's product mix to more gift-related items, such as the Franklin Pagemark, which should sell better in the third-quarter holiday season than last year's product offerings, which were more academically oriented and sold better in the back-to-school second quarter. Last year's revenue also included $1.4 million from the extension of a software licensing agreement and $663,000 from the closeout sale of the eBookMan. Franklin's new distribution agreement with Seiko brought in $1.2 million in the quarter.
Company president Barry Lipsky said Franklin had a strong October, and predicted that revenue and operating income in the second half of fiscal 2004 "will compare favorably with the prior year's results." For the first six months of the year, sales were down 18.3%, to $30.7 million, and earnings dropped 62.3%, to $1 million.
