September 13--IPG Photonics Corp. reported strong revenue and profit growth for the first half of 2005 resulting from increased sales in its industrial and telecommunications product lines. Sales increased by 58 percent and net income by more than 200 percent from the comparable period in 2004. As a result of rising demand, IPG is adding more than 100,000 square feet of capacity through a plant acquisition in Germany and new building projects in the U.S.
Tim Mammen, CFO of IPG, says, "We continue to see strong revenue and profitability gains driven primarily by accelerating demand for fiber lasers, especially higher power models. Backlog remains strong and the book-to-bill ratio was greater than one for the first half of 2005." Mammen adds, "With growing sales levels and better manufacturing efficiencies, IPG experienced significant improvements in profitability levels over 2004 when IPG generated positive net income. In the second half of 2005, the company expects continued strong financial performance with annual revenue over $90 milion."