Synergetics USA Inc. .Synergetics USA Inc., a St. Louis medical device company, saw its profit double to a record $2 million in its fiscal fourth quarter.
The O’Fallon, Mo.-based company (NASDAQ: SURG), which makes medical devices for ophthalmic surgery and neurosurgery, reported record sales of $15.8 million for the fourth quarter ended July 31, up 21 percent from $13.1 million in the same quarter a year earlier.
For full year fiscal 2011, Synergetics reported a profit of $5.6 million on sales of $55.8 million, compared with a profit of $5.7 million on sales of $52.1 million in fiscal 2010, when it received a $2.4 million settlement from Alcon Laboratories of Switzerland over competitive practices and an $800,000 gain from a $3 million sale of its surgical assets to Stryker Corp. in Kalamazoo, Mich.
President and CEO Dave Hable told the Business Journal his company has been able to grow sales after switching from an in-house direct sales staff of seven people to a sales arrangement through Johnson & Johnson, which has 70 people selling Synergetics’ products nationwide.
“Synergetics’ record results for the fourth quarter highlight the solid progress we have made since last year in building our sales of ophthalmic and neurosurgical products and in improving our profitability,” Hable said in the earnings release. “Our record net income benefited from higher sales, growth in our margins and improved leverage of selling, general and administrative expenses. Our sales accelerated in the second half of 2011 due to increased demand for our ophthalmic disposable products and the contribution from new products introduced over the past year. Disposable product sales have grown to approximately 80 percent of our total product sales.”