Published: October 15, 2008 12:16 am            

BUSINESS: Taylor Devices absorbs market woes

Earnings were down last quarter for Taylor Devices, but sales volume is up and the local company’s president Doug Taylor isn’t worried.

“It doesn’t mean a whole lot because you have profit fluctuations. The key is that we’re making a profit, which is more than General Motors and a lot of other companies,” Taylor said. “What it shows is a product mix. Last year was the best year in our 55-year history,” he added, stressing the figures are relative to that time period.

The report for the quarter ending Aug. 31 indicates net earnings were $148,652, down from $348,230 during the same period last year. Sales were up, $4,803,502 from $4,408,185. The company trades on the NASDAQ under TAYD, which has taken a beating along with the other major markets. Taylor’s price per share is currently $3.50, down from about $6 per share last year.

During that time, Taylor said several factors had improved business, including one humanitarian catastrophe in a roundabout way.

The company, based in North Tonawanda and employing about 95 Western New Yorkers, manufactures commercial shock absorption components for the military and seismic dampers for earthquake-resistant buildings around the world.

May’s Sichuan earthquake, a massively deadly 7.5 magnitude which rocked China killing thousands, sent Taylor’s stocks soaring in the aftermath as engineers saw the benefits of the technology his company manufactures.

“Simply because there were several buildings around the earthquake zone that didn’t fare as well as the ones that had our dampers.” Taylor said.

Past projects range from dampers for structures like Los Angeles City Hall to orbiting communications satellites, as well as an upcoming contract with NASA for a portion of the shuttle launch system now in the works.

The Guggenheim Museum in New York City used Taylor devices to protect its priceless collection.

“We have dampers in space,” Taylor said of about 200 satellite components now in orbit.

A secondary manufacturing facility is located in Kenmore, and the firm maintains sales offices on the West Coast.

Of their performance in the last quarter, the company’s president said the credit crisis slows lucrative international contracts as financing becomes more difficult, noting that new projects yield bigger returns than periods where replacement parts take precedence.



Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.

        

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