Sales up 33.2 percent for Chaparral, Robalo parent

Marine Products Corp., manufacturer of Chaparral and Robalo, grew sales, profits and income for the fourth quarter of 2015 on the strength of outboard sales, the company reported Wednesday.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2015, Marine Products generated net sales of $49,881,000, a 33.2 percent increase over the $37,441,000 for the same period in 2014.

The company credited higher unit sales of Robalo outboard sport fishing boat sand Chaparral Suncoast outboard boats during the quarter.

“The 2015 retail selling season was strong, and the dealer and customer reception of many of our new product offerings has been positive,” said Richard A. Hubbell, Marine Products’ president and CEO. “Unit sales growth among our Robalo sport fishing boats continues to be strong, particularly in sales of our new Robalo 160 models.  Chaparral SunCoast outboard sales continued to grow as well and we continue to be optimistic about the SunCoast models that we introduced for the 2016 model year.”

Gross profit for the quarter was $11,117,000, or 22.3 percent of net sales, a 49.5 percent increase compared to gross profit of $7,434,000, or 19.9 percent of net sales, a year earlier. Higher production volumes, which led to improved manufacturing efficiencies, helped boost those numbers, the company said.

Operating profit for the quarter was $5,420,000, an increase of more than 100 percent, compared to $2,537,000 in the fourth quarter of last year. Net income for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 was $3,845,000, an increase of $1,804,000 or 88.4 percent, compared to net income of $2,041,000 for the fourth quarter of 2014.

Sales and income were also up for all of 2015, with net sales for the 12 months ended December 31, 2015, reaching $207,061,000, an increase of 21.1 percent compared to the prior year.  Net income for the 12 months ended December 31, 2015, was $14,306,000 or $0.39 earnings per diluted share, compared to net income of $8,914,000, or $0.24 earnings per diluted share in the prior year.

The outlook for 2016 is also positive, Hubbell said.

“Early results of attendance and sales from the 2016 boat show season are favorable, and our order backlog is higher than at this time last year,” he said. “I am proud of our innovative efforts which are driving growth in a broader product offering. Due in part to our confidence in the effort, we have increased production slightly during the first quarter in order to meet dealer and consumer demand as the 2016 retail selling season approaches.”

The company also announced Wednesday that its Board of Directors declared a 50 percent increase to the regular quarterly cash dividend from $0.04 per share to $0.06 per share payable March 10, 2016 to common stockholders of record at the close of business on February 10, 2016.