TEMPE, AZ – Benchmark Electronics reported first quarter sales of $515 million, down 15% year-over-year and up 1.4% sequentially.

Net income was $4 million, a decrease of 71.4% compared to the first quarter of 2019, following a net loss of $7 million in the fourth quarter.

"I want to thank our extraordinary team for their hard work to deliver our results for the first quarter,” said Jeff Benck, president and CEO. “While adhering to safety and government guidelines, we were able to navigate a very difficult start to the year that began with challenges in our Suzhou, China, facility early in the quarter and then migrated to our global locations in late March.

"Looking ahead, while we are not immune to the economic impacts created by Covid-19 and the associated labor and supply chain challenges, we expect continued strength in medical, defense, and semi-cap sectors compared to our other vertical markets. We continue to play a key role in the Covid-19 fight with a number of products we design, test, and manufacture in the medical sector that directly support efforts to battle this disease. Our teams also continue to build essential products supporting the energy, semiconductor, security, and defense markets.

"We remain in close contact with our customers, monitoring their end markets and the ever-changing labor and supply chain conditions. We are proactively deploying a number of prioritized cost and cash management actions to reduce expenses and conserve cash during this period of uncertainty. We have a strong balance sheet, and I have the utmost confidence in the Benchmark global team to manage through these challenging times and emerge stronger as we focus on meeting the priority needs of our customers."

Overall, higher-value market revenues during the first quarter were up 8% year-over-year and 6% sequentially due to stronger demand, despite labor and supply chain challenges related to Covid-19 that occurred late in the quarter. Traditional market revenues were down 57% year-over-year primarily from the company’s exit of a legacy computing contract.

Benchmark declined to forecast its second quarter financial and operational results, citing unknown effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on operations due to government-enacted plant shutdowns and shelter-in-place restrictions, particularly in Tijuana, Penang  and California, and related supply chain impacts.

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