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US photovoltaic (PV) company SunPower has announced third quarter revenue of $705m, an almost 20 per cent increase compared to the second quarter's result of $592m and also up on the same period last year when the figure was $550m.
However, while the company's GAAP gross margin improved to 10.8 per cent from 3.3 per cent in the second quarter, but this was down significantly from the 20.4 per cent margin recorded in the third quarter last year. The company made a net GAAP loss of $370.8m, an increase from the $147.9m loss of the proceeding quarter. In the same three months last year SunPower achieved a $20m net profit.
Following the announcement of these results, SunPower said it will realign its business in anticipation of the market conditions in 2012. This includes several key staff altering their responsibilities and two senior members leaving the company.
Tom Werner, president and CEO of SunPower, said, 'We executed well in the quarter as we met our third-quarter plan despite a period of rapidly changing market conditions. Our diversified channels provided us with the flexibility to reallocate product between business segments and regions. During [the third quarter] we maintained our premium position in our residential and commercial business while substantially gaining share in Germany and the US. In our utility and power plants business, we completed the construction of both of our Italian power plants by the 31 August deadline and advanced a set of North American power plants through permitting and approvals. We remain focused on our 2011 panel cost reduction roadmap and have commenced production on the first line using our step-reduced cell manufacturing process.'
Dennis Arriola, CFO of SunPower, added, 'We further improved our balance sheet flexibility during the quarter while continuing to successfully manage our inventory and working capital needs. Our new $275m revolving credit and $200m letter of credit facilities helped to reduce our overall cost of capital, improve our liquidity and further demonstrate the value of our relationship with Total. These facilities, coupled with our existing $771m letter of credit facility, provide further support to our strong and growing large commercial and utility and power plant businesses in North America.'
