Glenrothes, Scotland-based Rodime Plc has reported painful results with a net loss of $7m on a turnover of $14.7m for the second quarter to March 31. This compares to a loss of $3.6m on $24m for the same quarter last year, and a loss of $12.6m for the six months, up from $7.7m last year. Rodime says that 73% of shipments in the second quarter consisted of 100Mb disk drives, an improvement on last year when high capacity drives represented only 39%. It attributes poor results to competitive pressure and price erosion of existing products after the introduction of the 1 high 100Mb drives. Also, Rodime says that its ability to respond to these pressures was limited by the termination of its manufacturing agreement with Japanese Victor Co of Japan and the consequent delay in introducing the new drives, affecting both volumes and gross margins. Overheads and staffing levels have been reduced since the consolidation of product manufacture in Singapore, and the company is at an advanced stage of negotiations with an Asian manufacturer on a possible joint venture. Two new product lines are in the pipeline, and the first is the 3004S series, a 3.5 full-height drive with capacities of 540Mb, 331Mb and 121.6Mb. The 3001A series is a 3.5 1 high drive with a formatted capacity of 121.6Mb. Both are scheduled for volume production and shipment in the third quarter. The company is not giving financial details of patent royalties it won from IBM Corp and Conner Peripherals Inc.
