Providence, R.I. – Nortek’s audio, video and control solutions (AVC) segment shrank its second-quarter and first-half operating losses by 49 percent, with the quarter’s loss shrinking to $4.1 million from the year-ago $8.1 million loss, parent company Nortek reported.
The segment’s first-half operating loss fell to $6.5 million from $12.8 million.
The segment’s sales also shrank in the quarter by 2.7 percent to $36 million and by 6 percent in the half to $68.5 million.
The sales drop reflected lower sales of professional video signal-management products, partially offset by strong year-over-year growth in the residential portion of AVC, the company said.
The AVC segment consists of Core Brands residential and commercial audio/video equipment and home-control equipment, but it also includes TV One, which offers video signal-management solutions for the professional and broadcast video markets, and Gefen, which offers audio, video and computer signal-processing solutions for commercial and prosumer applications.
TV One, however, was sold off at the end of July to a consortium of TV One’s management, and Gefen is being downsized and merged with AVC’s Core Brands, Nortek revealed. Gefen will also exit certain unspecified product lines.
Along with the restructuring of other select Nortek operations, said president/CEO Michael J. Clarke, total operating losses related to restructured operations and TV One was $43.5 million for the 12 months ended June, so “the planned elimination of these losses in the future is expected to have a significant impact on our overall profitability.”
On a consolidated basis, Nortek’s sales fell 2 percent to $703.9 million in the quarter and by 1 percent in the half to $1.28 billion. The company’s consolidated net loss shrank in the quarter to $2.3 million from $46.2 million, and the net loss for the half fell to $16.2 million from $54.8 million.
Nortek’s other business include commercial and industrial ventilation, residential and commercial HVAC, and security and control systems.
For AVC’s full fiscal 2014, sales were up 9.5 percent to $162.6 million, but full-year operating losses grew to $19.2 million from 2013’s operating loss of $12.9 million and a 2012 operating loss of $2.1 million.
